


Tempest

by RogueWitch



Series: Circling Hawks [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Brainwashing, F/M, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, M/M, Multi, Psychic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-11-01 21:24:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10930329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueWitch/pseuds/RogueWitch
Summary: Bucky struggles to find himself in amongst the bond with Darcy and Clint, while the Hawks deal with the reality of being bonded to a brainwashing victim and former Hydra Asset.





	1. Glass Houses

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here it is, the much anticipated sequel to In Search of Winter.
> 
> A big thank you to my Beta ktravierso, who put up with a great deal while I tried to break this story.

Tempest 

Chapter 1: Glass Houses

Bucky sat on the couch with his hands clasped between his legs, taking long slow breaths as sunlight filtered in through the closed curtains, splashing brightly on the rug in front of his bare feet. He could feel his mates in the next room, busy getting dressed, and their busy lives. Bitterness swelled up in the back of his throat, busy lives that his very existence was disrupting, and he couldn’t even really bring himself to care. He ran his hands through his hair, knots catching at his fingers as he tugged them through without thinking, clumps of bed mussed hair sticking in the plates of his metal fingers. His head ached and his stomach was tight, and he couldn’t get their thoughts out of his mind. He felt every touch, every warm, kind feeling pulling at him, begging for him to give in. Years of compulsory discipline under Hydra forced him to resist, push away from the relief they kept trying to tell him would come with acceptance. He ripped the tangled bits of bed tossed hair from his hand, and shoved his fingers back through his hair; the sharp sting of strands pulling free from his scalp helped him focus on resisting the warmth that the bond created.

Darcy strolled out of the bedroom, her cutoff denim shorts showing off the long expanse of her legs, beautifully rounded and begging to be touched. Bucky watched as those legs made their way over to him, where he was hunched over on the couch, curled over his spread knees. He could clearly see the trio of freckles that stained the skin just over her right knee, the only blemishes on her otherwise flawless peaches and cream complexion. She gently ran her fingers down the side of his face, giving them the contact they both craved, and helping to push the boiling tension in his mind to retreat just a fraction, enough that when she lifted his chin, he didn’t wince at the movement and caught her eyes looking down at him. The warmest blue green, like the ocean on a clear day. “We’d all feel better if you stayed all night, Buck.” Darcy had a smile on her lips, but the corners were strained, like she almost couldn’t bear to hold the expression in place.

“Had a nightmare, princess,” Bucky growled, he had nightmares every night, driving him from the Hawks' bed and onto the couch, where he would watch the sun rise as he tried not to notice their peaceful sleepy thoughts drifting over the chaotic riot of feelings that tumbled through his mind. He couldn’t quite bring himself to slink back off to Steve’s apartment in the middle of the night, where his room technically was. Not that he had anything but borrowed and bought clothes there, things that had been acquired for him since he’d been brought back from the Himalayas with the Hawks. 

He leaned back on the couch away from her soft touch, folding his hands over his eyes, and pushing into the sockets, causing starbursts to explode behind his closed lids. “Didn’t want to wake you.” He could feel them both watching from the back of his head as he dreamed, as the horrors played though his mind; an endless procession of the dead, paraded before him in macabre displays of his sins. “Didn’t want you to see.”

He could feel her weight fall down onto the cushions next to him, her smaller fingers prying his hands from his face, as her mind curled around him, the warm light of her innocence breaking through the darkness that lived inside of him. “It’s a lighter load if you share the burden,” her mind pushed warm thoughts at him, days at the park and laughter between friends and lovers, the strength in their bond that the Hawks shared. But underneath, he could feel cold concrete walls and a thin mattress, terror soaking the corners of her mind just beyond the beautiful imagery she called up for him to see. It reminded him that even his bond mates weren’t free from the horrors he’d reaped on the world. They’d been taken to replace him, and now they were all caught in the cage that Hydra had made. “We can help.”

“No, you can’t,” Bucky pushed off the couch and stalked towards the kitchen, pulling down a mug from the cabinet. He poured freshly brewed coffee into the chipped purple mug and took a long deep breath, trying to ignore the way it shuddered in his lungs. The coffee smelled so different from the sludge he remembered during the war that he’d drunk out of a battered tin cup. It tasted like liquid gold, and was almost hot enough to warm him from the inside before the biting cold settled back in his stomach.

“I can’t force you,” Darcy shrugged and kicked her feet up on the coffee table, her back to him. They’d done this dance before, every morning since the day after the Hawks’ wedding, all varied aspects on the same theme. They wanted to help, but he couldn’t stand their invasions into his mind, not after he felt like he’d just gotten his own thoughts back, only to have them taken away, however inadvertently, again.

“You already did,” he dumped his mug in the sink, not caring if it shattered. He slammed out through the front door, still only in his low slung sweatpants. The door shuddered in his wake as he stalked down the hall; pushing away the hurt he’d left Darcy with, not wanting to deal with how deeply it affected him.

*****

Bucky quickly made his way across the living room in Steve’s apartment on silent feet. The first bedroom door was closed, but a vein of light trickled out from the crack at the bottom, letting him know that Steve was awake. The former Asset prayed silently to a god he was sure no longer listened, that the man behind the door wouldn’t open it, that he could just get behind a closed door, alone, so he could hide from the world. His eyes never left the small spill of light, even as he slowly turned the handle of the guestroom door, his room. He slipped inside and closed the wooden barrier between himself and the rest of the world, using as much care to close it silently as he had in opening it.

Distantly, he could feel Barton comforting Darcy. At the back of his mind he could almost taste their salt stained kisses on his lips, as he slowly sank down on the floor, his own tears falling down his cheeks and soaking into the knees of his sweats, as he curled up and tried to push it all away.

A knock on the door startled him from his thoughts, rattling the door, making the pull in his mind become more insistent as the headache bloomed darkly. “Hey, Buck?” Steve called through the door. “You alright in there?”

“Go away,” he called back, his voice scratching at the back of his throat as he forced the words out. He rubbed his eyes over his upturned knees, letting all traces of his tears soak into the heather grey pants. “Just leave me alone, Steve.”

“I’m here if you need,” he could feel the other man sigh as he slowly walked away.

Bucky sat there on the floor for another moment, a deep breath rattling in his chest as he tried to only feel his own thoughts. He knew it was impossible, but it was all he wanted. After seventy odd years of other people’s ideals being forced into him, he just wanted to be alone to rediscover his own mind. He pushed himself up off the floor and stumbled into the bathroom, as the pressure in his head made it harder to function. He shucked his pants off, and tossed them back through the door to the bedroom, leaving them lying in a heap. The ice cold shower spray momentarily drove the Hawks from his brain, his entire being focused on the shock of his breath being forced from his lungs by the stinging cold. He let the icy water cascade down over the back of his head, letting his hair stick to his face and catch against the day old stubble he couldn’t be bothered to shave off his cheeks. He only wanted to be alone, and that would ever be an option again. If only Steve could have left well enough alone.

*****

Clint’s soft kisses did nothing to quench the flow of frustrated tears that dripped down Darcy’s face. They’d been trying for weeks to help Bucky, but they were both quickly starting to fall under the pressure of their third’s heavy burdens. He cupped her cheeks and tried to brush the tracks of tears away, his own eyes swimming as he looked at her. “It’ll get better,” he mumbled against her lips, licking the salty wet from his mouth. “We’ll figure this all out.”

“We keep saying that,” Darcy let her forehead rest against his, and tangled her left hand with his, letting their wedding rings click together. “He’s pushing more and more away,” she ran her thumb over the smooth silver band on his finger, a twin of her own. “He barely touched either of us before he disappeared into the living room last night.” Her shoulders slumped as she took in the strain that was pulling at her mate. He felt the burden of Bucky’s distance more than she did. “I’m scared of what could happen if he doesn’t try.”

“It’s time to talk to Sam, Darce,” Clint sighed. They’d both decided they would rather keep others out of their bond, but it had been long enough that it was time to admit that they couldn’t help Bucky on their own. “Please.” Darcy just nodded. He kissed her once more, gently before he stood up, and walked back into the bedroom.

Tension pushed down on her as soon as he stopped touching her. She missed his warm calloused fingertips on her skin like a living ache in her stomach, the way they’d drag over her and bring her to the heights of passion, the way he’d rain kisses down her back as they laid in bed, or simply ran the tip of a single finger down her spine. 

With Bucky’s admission that he could feel their contact with each other, all extraneous touching had stopped. Small kisses and quick touches replaced hours of lovemaking, nights of losing themselves in each other, and that loss was slowly killing both of them from the inside. Their relationship was born of being a part of each other in every way, and now, three weeks married, and they could barely be in the same room together, lest they forget that their unwilling partner could feel them, too. Darcy looked at the closed door to their bedroom with one last sigh and pushed off the couch to head towards the labs. She poured a travel mug of coffee and grabbed her keys, resolving to clean up the broken pieces of Bucky’s mug when she got home. They needed a solution, either a way to help Bucky, or break the bond, and soon, before they destroyed each other. She was just worried that with the loss of the bond, she’d lose Clint, too. The apartment door closed behind her, and felt like an ending, making tears slip down her face. Maybe Sam would be able to help; maybe she could save their bond and her new marriage, and Bucky, too. It felt like too many maybes.

Her phone beeped as she dumped her bag on the lab table. She opened the text. “You know I love you no matter what, right?” Clint had sent, a little purple heart after the text, making her smile through her tears, a tiny hiccupping laugh breaking the tension in her chest.

“Always and forever?” she sent back, adding the same purple heart.

“Bond or not, my darling,” Darcy covered her mouth with her hand, and sobbed clutching the phone in one hand.


	2. Nothing Else Matters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to my beta, ktravierso.
> 
> Good Morning everyone! I hope you all have had a very nice cup of coffee, which is what I am doing right now!
> 
> Enjoy.

Tempest

Chapter 2: Nothing Else Matters

Getting Bucky to agree to talk to Sam was a chore in and of itself. Darcy sat on the coffee table in front of the former Winter Soldier, her head cradled in her hands as Bucky just shook his head. “Got enough people inside my brain, princess,” he said quietly, watching as she rubbed stiff circles into her temples, trying to relieve some of the tensions from the headache they were both dealing with. He felt bad for inflicting pain on her, even as he refused to touch her. The peaches and cream color of her skin a little pink from the constant rubbing of her hands, making him want to touch her all the more. All he wanted was to feel the warm smooth skin under his hands, he knew for a fact that it was even silkier than it looked, but he clenched his fists and scooted back all the way on the couch, his legs folded in front of him, and his hands stuffed in his lap. “Don’t want any shrink rummaging around in there too.”

“Sam’s not a shrink, Buck,” she sighed and leaned back on her hands, giving up trying to sooth her aching head. “He’s a counselor, he’s been working at the VA for years helping soldiers with PTSD and getting their lives back together after deployment. Steve trusts him, likes him even, and Sam’s offered to try and help us.”

“Nothing can help us,” Bucky stood up, practically knocking into Darcy as he abruptly turned and made for the door of the apartment. “You’ve linked yourself to a murderer and a monster, nothing you can do but accept it.”

“Yeah,” Darcy tripped over her own feet as she scrambled after him. “See, neither Clint or I see you as a monster, and dealing isn’t working. We’ve been trying to give you space, to let you figure shit out, but it’s not working, it's making us crazy, and I know it's fucking with you, too.”

“Look, princess, I appreciate the sentiment, but you’ve seen my nightmares,” he placed his hand on the doorknob, his back to her. She could see the way his shoulders bunched up around his ears. He’d have to give in soon and touch her, but he’d made a habit of waiting until the absolute last moment. It wasn’t healthy, and it couldn’t continue.

“Bucky,” she huffed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You’re hurting us, and you’re doing it on purpose.” She felt sick as she watched his whole body stiffen, but nice wasn’t working. “We’re looking into breaking the bond, see if there’s a way, but it doesn’t look promising. Bruce thinks it’ll kill us, so unless that’s your goal, you have to stop fucking around and do something, and I’ve got a solution that just might help.”

He turned and looked at her, anger simmering just behind his cerulean eyes. “Manipulation isn’t going to work,” he twisted the knob open behind his back. “And it’s below you.”

“I’m fucking desperate,” Darcy shouted as he slammed out of the apartment, the door rattling in its casing as he stalked down the hallway. She melted to the floor and let out a painful sob. He had to agree on his own. Counseling wouldn’t work if he didn’t want it to, anyhow.

*****

It was another week before Bucky finally agreed. He came back to the Hawks’ apartment, his head pounding from lack of their touch to find Darcy hunched over the toilet in the master bath, coughing up bile and sobbing. He still wasn’t happy with the idea, nor did he think it was worth their time, but he couldn’t stand how pained she sounded, her manipulative words circling through his mind daily, he was hurting them on purpose, because he was determined to punish himself, or at least that’s what Steve had conjectured.

Darcy pulled her Hawk down onto the loveseat opposite the dark brown leather chair where Sam was already sitting in his small office, which was really just the guest bedroom in his own apartment; she scooted far enough over, so that Bucky could squeeze in next to her, his jean clad thigh pressed tightly against hers. She had her fingers tangled with Clint’s, but Bucky wouldn’t take her other hand, even after she lay it palm up on his denim covered leg, and left it there. Instead, he made himself as small as possible in the corner of the tiny couch and glared at Sam. The counselor didn’t seem to be phased by the scowling assassin across from him. He just kicked one foot over the opposite knee, and settled a legal pad there.

“So,” Sam folded his hands over the paper in his lap, and looked at Bucky, a small smile on his face. “Let’s start things off easy,” he uncapped a pen and scrawled the date over the top of the page. “Can you tell me how you’re settling in, Bucky?” The Soldier just gave the other man a dark look. Sam nodded and jotted something down that Bucky couldn’t read. “From what Steve says you’ve been spending most nights with the Hawks, I think that’s really great.”

“Not like I have a choice,” Bucky grumbled, trying to press himself further back into the corner, wanting to remove Darcy’s hand from his leg, but not wanting to risk skin contact, lest they see the brewing storm of thoughts that were stirring around in his mind. He had woken that morning to the quiet whimpering coming from the couple, still both asleep, sharing a vivid, and pleasant dream, which the accidental brush of skin allowed him to see. The want that flowed off of both of them was clinging to him tightly.

“No,” Sam conceded, tapping the pen on the pad before jotting something else down, keeping the paper tipped just enough so that Bucky couldn’t read what was written. “I guess not.”

Silence fell over the room as Sam made his notes and Clint sighed, squeezing Darcy’s hand to try and lend some comfort, despite the tension pulling at the back of all three of their minds, the link desperate to be whole. Clint had noticed that the longer they went with light brushes to appease their bond, the shorter the amount of time before it started to hurt them. “We’ve been having a little trouble with the bond,” Darcy finally broke silence, bringing Sam’s attention to her. Bucky could feel her discomfort with being the counselor’s center of attention, but said nothing; it was Clint’s job to back her up, not his. “It hurts more than it did,” she shrugged, like it wasn’t anything important. “Bucky waits forever to touch us, and this last week, it was only an hour before Clint had to come home and try to get some touch.”

“Bucky?” Sam turned to him and lifted an eyebrow. “We all know that you don’t really like touching, but could it possibly help if you didn’t wait so long.”

“Did they tell you I can feel them with they’re fucking?” Bucky asked to his clasped hands, scooted all the way onto his left leg, because Darcy’s damn hand was still waiting, with her palm up for him to fit his hand into hers. “So now they aren’t, and that’s pissing me the fuck off, and making it feel like a tightly coiled spring ready to explode in my mind.”

“Okay,” Sam noted something on the legal pad and placed the pen on top before looking back up at Bucky. “Do you think that maybe having you participate more in the bond, that it might lend a modicum of control, and that with that control, you might be able to not feel the things you don’t want to be a part of?”

“I don’t fucking know,” his head thumped against the wall behind him, his thoughts circling around the feelings that had been shuddering down the bond even when they weren’t touching him, the want and need that rolled off both of them anytime they were near him.

“How do you think we can try and fix this particular problem, then?” Sam waited patiently as Bucky closed his eyes, trying to block out the sadness that he could feel coming from Darcy. He knew it was hers and not the Hawk’s, because her thoughts were always too bright, like warm sunshine, while Clint’s where like a barrier between them and the world.

“They should just fuck and break the tension,” he growled, thumping his head against the wall harder than he’d really intended. “They shouldn’t worry about me, just ignore that I’m there. They were fine before I came around.”

“Does that sound like something that Clint and Darcy would be comfortable with?” Sam asked in the annoyingly calm voice he’d been using, like his ma used to use when he was being unreasonable. It fucking grated at his last nerve. “Don’t you think that they might have stopped their intimacy because they were worried about you, and didn’t want to hurt you more than they had to?”

“No,” Bucky sighed and squeezed his eyes shut as he resisted thumping his head against the wall again. “But we gotta do something, cause that’s all they think about, so they might as well do it.”

“But thinking isn’t like doing,” Darcy whispered quietly, finally withdrawing her hand from his leg and looking up at him, her eyes shiny with emotion. “When we think you can’t feel it, unless we're already touching, and still it’s not the same.” Bucky shrugged and looked away. “I think,” she turned to Clint and then Sam. “I think we need to get used to opening up the bond, and have us all get comfortable touching before we even touch on the subject of sex.”

“I agree with Darcy on this one,” Sam wrote something at the bottom of the page and flipped to the next one. “All three of you should take time to explore the bond see how it feels, how it changes throughout the day. I would like you to keep a journal about your experiences and the different feelings. We can compare notes next week.”

“How about we talk about the incident that brought us here today?” Clint offered, the first time he’d spoken since they walked through the door. “Cause I think that’s really important to talk about.”

“Of course,” Sam looked between the three of them, waiting for them to elaborate.

“Bucky came home to me ralphing in the bathroom,” Darcy stated too simply, shrugging her shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal at all. “He held my hair back with his metal hand and told me he’d come see you if I would stop crying.”

“We came because Bucky realized how badly he was affecting us,” Clint added as soon as Darcy stopped talking. “Darcy’s headaches have gotten so bad that she can’t function, she’s been throwing up for the past two weeks, daily. This was just the first time Bucky saw it.”

“And you didn’t know how bad it was from your contact with both of them?” Sam asked, his hand working over the new page on his legal pad. “Clint didn’t you say that you get full disclosure from the bond when you touch.”

“Yeah, but it’s gotta be real touch, not the brush of fingers that Bucky tries to sustain on,” the archer growled. “We have to actually touch skin for more than a microsecond, it’s gotta be real contact.”

“And you think this has something to do with why the bond has been getting worse,” the counselor nodded, making more notes.

“Yeah,” Darcy said very quietly, looking over at Bucky under her lashes. He could feel a twist in his gut, he was really hurting them, not just physically with his discomfort with touch, but emotionally, his lack of participation in their link was emotionally draining them. A tear slipped down Darcy’s cheek, and he watched as she angrily wiped it away. Bucky finally gave in and reached for her hand, letting the bond settle for a moment before the warmth and comfort that she offered him became too much, and he hand to pull away again. Clint ran his fingers along the back of her neck to ease the tension that was coiled there, giving Bucky a sharp look, before turning away again.

*****

Sam stopped Bucky at the door, keeping him in the office as Darcy and Clint went to sit in the living room. “You mind if I talk to you alone, first?” the other man asked, cocking his eyebrow just a bit and nodding his head back into the room. Bucky just nodded and let Sam pull the door shut. He threw himself back down on the couch and looked over at the chair where Sam had been sitting for the last hour, waiting for him to reclaim it. “Now, I want to be clear that I’m not here to judge any one of you,” he picked up the paper again, propping it back up on his foot. “That’s not my job. My job is to help the three of you find a place where you can all be comfortable and, if at all possible, content; if not happy, with the situation that you all find yourself in,” he flipped over to a blank page and took a long look at Bucky. “With that being said, I have to make sure we’re both clear that it’s not just you who’s dealing with this bond and the problems inherent in letting someone else so deep inside of your psyche.”

“I know,” Bucky picked at the hem of his jeans, pulling a loose thread free and twisting it around his finger.

“Darcy and Clint really want you to be good,” Sam leaned down so he could try and catch Bucky’s eye. The Soldier just nodded. “If you could let Darcy in, even a little bit, she’s pretty excellent at taking care of people. And she enjoys it, she was Dr. Foster’s assistant for years before any of this happened, not cause she liked astrophysics, but because she loved Jane, and loved taking care of her.”

“Right,” Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Just try,” Sam wrote a long note down on the pad under what Bucky suspected was his name. He guessed there were a lot of words like ‘distant’ and ‘difficult’ that accompanied reasons for those two things. Most of them stemming from Hydra. “Explore the bond with her, let her ease you into it. You might like it.”

“Kinda what I’m afraid of,” he mumbled, almost hoping that Sam missed what he’d said, but knowing that he couldn’t take the words back now that they were out in the world.

“This week,” Sam nodded down at the paper in his lap. “Your homework is to spend some time with Darcy outside of the apartment. I want you to go with her to work, see what she does for the scientists three, and let her touch you before she starts puking her guts out, okay?”

“Yeah,” Bucky pushed himself to his feet and strode out of the room without looking back at Sam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave food for the muse, she's hungry this morning. Coffee's better.


	3. Some Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursday! Sorry I'm a little late, I've had some sleeping issues, and was ordered to sleep and not write.
> 
> Thank you to my lovely beta, who no doubt stayed up late to edit this so that I could post this morning. ktravierso, you are awesome.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tempest

Chapter 3: Some Nights

Darcy sat at the end of the bed and watched as Bucky carefully folded his jeans, running his hands over the creases until they lay smooth, his t-shirt got the same treatment before he placed both articles of clothing on the dresser in the small bare spot that by silent agreement had become his. She had also cleared out a drawer for him, and space in the closet, but they remained empty; his clothes in Steve’s apartment, except what he had worn that day, and the pair of sweats that he slept in. She waited for him to say something, but he stubbornly remained silent, so she cleared her throat and leaned back to watch him.

“So,” Darcy started, clearing her throat a second time to force the lump that was developing down. “Sam asked that I start taking you to work with me.” She waited, but the former Asset didn’t even turn to acknowledge that she’d spoken. “Jane’s pretty loose about who comes and goes through the labs, so I don’t see it as a problem, but I wanted to make sure you would be alright on the lab floors.”

“Don’t got a choice, princess,” Bucky carefully placed his socks on top of his t-shirt and lined his boots up next to the dresser, his shoulders slumping. He took a deep breath and turned slowly, standing stiffly in front of the mirror, blocking Darcy’s reflection of herself. “I’ll be fine, thank you for your concern,” his voice was flat, and the smile he tried to force lay limp on his lips before he gave up and let it fade. Instead, he held out his hand to her and waited for her to curl her own fingers around his, holding on long enough to feel her apprehension and for her to drown in his guilt.

“I know it’s hard,” she told him, releasing his fingers, resisting the urge to wipe them against her flannel pants. His mind was filled with tumbling thoughts, hatred and loneliness, and just a hint of an impression of a Vargas Girl with big brown curls and curvy hips, that he saw when he looked at her. She hid her smile at the thought, by tossing a couple of pillows that had fallen loose the night before. “But, like I’ve said before, the burden’s lighter if you get help carrying it.”

Bucky nodded slightly, but didn’t move to do anything about the tension that still huddled in his mind. “Look, sweetheart,” he sagged against the dresser making it rattle against the wall, the mirror wobbling precariously before he quickly relieved it of his weight again. “I get that you wanna help, and I appreciate it, but…”

“You’re not ready,” Darcy nodded, crawling into the big bed, settling herself against the pillows in the middle, and digging her feet under the covers. “Just, can we take a baby step, I know you’re coming to work tomorrow, and that’s big, but tonight, will you touch us, like really touch us, let this headache fade, give us something.”

He looked at the women who had invited him into her bed, and could remember a dozen others, leggy blondes and busty brunettes, and particularly memorable red head; all of whom had gladly pulled him into their beds once upon a time. He couldn’t quite reach the feeling that the memories stirred, but it didn’t matter, Darcy wanted him to join her to ease her hurt, save her marriage, not so she could crawl over him. She wasn’t looking for kissing and pleasure, she wanted the fucking headache to stop, and maybe get some good sleep. He could see the dark circles under her eyes that her concealer just didn’t cover, deep purple smudges under her eyes that pulled down her entire face. “I’ll try,” he finally relented and took a couple of steps towards the bed, watching her. A smile lit up her face and she reached out a hand to him as he crawled under the covers with her, her feet grazing his sweats as he settled against the pillows closest to the door, his spot. The one he left empty most nights before three am. He vowed not to leave that night. He would watch the sunrise from bed if need be, but he wanted her to know he was trying. “Where’s Barton?”

“Range,” she leaned to the other side of the bed and grabbed her tablet, not giving an inch, even if their third wasn’t there. “He’ll be home when he runs out of arrows, or Nat gets annoyed with him shooting her targets.” Bucky just nodded and slipped down under the covers, turning off his lamp and he curled on his side facing the door. “Can I touch you?”  
“Yeah, princess,” he said quietly, shuffling back a couple of inches until his back rested along her legs. She curled an arm around his shoulder, her hand resting lightly on his chest. As she read, the scenes played out in their minds, lulling him into a light sleep. Her thoughts told him of a boy wizard, who was unloved by his family, but finds another one. He liked the story.

*****

Clint joined them after Darcy had finally put her tablet down and slid under the covers with him, her small body spooning the back of his. She tucked her arms in between them, her face pressed into the space between his shoulder blades, tiny puffs of air letting Bucky know she was deeply asleep when the archer pulled back the covers and tucked himself around her body, the back of his hands resting over hers where they touched Bucky, linking them all together. Bucky tried to share the story Darcy had been enjoying with the other man, but Clint just huffed out a laugh.

“It’s a good book,” the Hawk told him, pulling Darcy tightly into his embrace, not losing contact with Bucky’s back. “Wait until she gets deeper into the series, she loves it. Her whole minds lights up when she imagines the antics those kids get up to.”

“She read it to you, too,” Bucky closed his eyes letting his body relax back into the bed as Clint conjured up images from the movies, and the number of times that Darcy had made him watch them.

“Yeah,” Clint sighed, rolling onto his back, with one arm still under Darcy and against Bucky’s back. “Our girl likes to read, and she loves to share her imagination. The first time we read a book together, and by together, I mean she read and I sat there while she did, I woke up so tightly wrapped around her, like giant octopus Clint couldn’t get close enough to the story that I had to try and bury myself in her mind. I’m sorry I missed Harry Potter, it’s one of my favorites that she reads.”

“I used to like to read,” the former Asset mumbled, ignoring the fact that the archer called Darcy theirs, she was the Hawks, but never Bucky’s. “Or the boy from Brooklyn did, anyway.”

“You’ll get back there,” the Hawk nodded, letting Bucky experience the difficulties he’d faced as he crawled back to himself after Loki. He wanted to shy away, not letting the burdens of someone else weigh heavy against him, but Barton showed him the light at the end of the tunnel, and it looked a hell of a lot like the brunette sandwiched in bed between them. “Just takes time, and realizing that you’re not alone. I’m not gonna lie, it sucks sometimes, and we’ll all have fucked up days, and you’re going to slide back. Sometimes I still do, but this little girl, she’s all about making those dark days go away.”

“You shouldn’t have to, neither of you,” Bucky slid the pillow out from under his head and hugged it to his chest.

“We don’t,” Clint said quietly, clicking the lamp off on his side of the bed. “We could keep ignoring it, we could kick you out of bed and fuck all night, only touching you when we have to, we could push you so far out of our world that you become a ghost. But neither Darcy nor I are those people. We help cause we want to, cause we care.” He shuffled around until he was comfortable, the pillow that Darcy had left him, perfectly shaped under his head, and closed his eyes. “Now shut the hell up and go to sleep, cause you got a long day at the labs tomorrow. Don’t think Darcy’s gonna just let you louse around, she’s gonna put you to work, probably lifting shit so she doesn’t have to.”

“Fuck you,” the Soldier growled, hugging his pillow harder as Clint’s laughter rang through their bond, dampened only just slightly by Darcy’s sleepy thoughts about magic and a hut surrounded by a pumpkin patch.

*****

Darcy lead Bucky through the glass doors of Jane’s lab at an ungodly hour of the morning, but that could be because he’d woken at four in the morning to a nightmare that wasn’t his own, a blue haze startling him from sleep as the Hawk had sighted down his P30 at a woman he didn’t recognize, the guilt that surrounded the nightmare stealing Bucky’s breath. He shook his head to dispel the memory and looked around the lab. The walls were all glass, looking from Jane’s lab into Tony’s and Bruce’s, sightlines all around the floor, only broken by the myriad of machines that dotted the floor. That kid from Brooklyn would have cum in his pants at the technology on display, Bucky couldn’t muster up near that level of excitement, as the metal tables and microscopes make him shudder in fear. Assets were not supposed to feel, but Bucky wasn’t an asset anymore, and he was fucking terrified of the glass cabinets filled with medical shit that he could see through the wall to the Hulk’s lab. Darcy let him over to her desk, an old metal and fake wood monstrosity covered several inches deep in papers, nearly spilling over her computer’s keyboard, and completely burying the mouse, only its cord visible to mark its existence. She shoved him down in her chair and perched herself on the edge of the desk, taking his face in her hands for just a moment, long enough for their eyes to lock, and let him know that she was aware of how simultaneously uncomfortable, and inappropriately excited he was. A wide grin splitting her lips.

“Oh, Bucky boy,” she laughed as she nodded at Jane, who stumbled in and sat on a rolling stool, hunched over in defeat as the thing rolled her across the floor. “We’re gonna work on that, but first, coffee. You want, Janie?”

“Coffee’s good,” the scientist acknowledged, her chair coming to a stop against a tall metal thing, which partially resembled an early computer, like the ones that Zola had lived in, and also kinda looked like some avant-garde sculpture. Bucky didn’t even care to guess what it did.

“You sleep last night, boss lady?” Darcy patted Bucky on the shoulder, her skin leaving contact with his for the first time since they’d left the Hawk’s apartment. A moment of panic flowed through his mind before he pushed it down, focusing on the wonder that past-Bucky would have felt, and ignoring the discomfort from the Asset.

“I found this thing,” Jane mumbled, stumbling from the stool, the rolling wheels bursting into action again until it smacked against a wall and tipped over. “The numbers all match up, I found it,” the scientist dug through some papers on a steel table, pushing so many off that it became like a little scrap paper waterfall. The tension that was creeping up around Bucky’s shoulders started to loosen. No one this disorganized and blatantly exhausted could possibly hurt him. Jane was actually a little adorable in her floundering. He tipped his head to the side and analyzed that thought, before deeming it his own, and not Darcy’s, even if he was pretty sure she felt the same way. “Here.”

Darcy took the piece of paper from her friend and turned it over and over in her hands. “This is a Starbuck’s receipt, Janie my dear,” she tried to hand it back to the scientist, but Jane just shook her head, and pushed away to attack one of the metal monsters that ran along the wall between her lab and Tony’s. Probably to protect the astrophysicist and her assistant from the engineer’s inventions.

“On the back, Darce,” she spun a dial and grabbed for a piece of paper, scribbling something down, and running to the white board to add something to an equation.  
“This is Bruce’s phone number,” Darcy fisted her hands against her hips and sighed, looking over at her friend. “Jane, go home.”

“No, no no no,” Jane clutched her marker against her chest, the end catching her chin and leaving a vivid blue mark down her neck. “I’ve just about, it’s almost…”

“Nope,” Darcy wrenched the marker from Jane’s hands and pushed her towards the door. “Jarvis, I need you to lock Jane out of the lab until she’s gotten six straight hours of sleep.” She pointed her finger at the other woman who looked completely defeated. “No cheating boss lady, go home, fuck your god, I don’t want to see you ‘til tomorrow.”

“Yes, mom,” Jane shuffled off towards the elevators, her head tipping against the doors after she pushed the button. Bucky was a little worried that she’d just tip right in when the doors opened, but the elevator dinged and she stepped in without falling.

“And that, Bucky Bear,” Darcy spread her hands wide and did a small circle. “Is what I do at work.”

“You sent your boss home,” Bucky cocked his head to the side and watched as the girl flitted around the room efficiently cleaning up the crazy piles of notes, her entire body looked lighter than he’d ever seen it. He watched her for another few minutes before it hit him, he’d done that, just by letting them touch him; he’d changed her entire carriage. “Does that mean our day’s over? Cause I wanna know what happens to that Potter kid.”

“Nope,” she dropped an arm full of notes on her own desk and sat down right in Bucky’s lap, not seeming to notice that he was already in her chair. She scooted the chair up to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper from the top of the pile to the right. “I still got Bruce and Tony to look after, and with Jane gone, I can make a dent in this pile of backlogged data entry.”

Bucky nodded and looked at the back of her head as she let her fingers fly over the keyboard. “You comfortable?”

“Yeah,” he could almost feel her aborted thought about wiggling in his lap before she stopped typing. “Umm, I just,” she huffed. “I can move, you can have the chair, I can use Jane’s stool if I’m being,” she stood and turned to get the stool still lying dejected against the floor where it had ended up after tornado Jane.

“No, princess,” Bucky grabbed her wrist, their skin connecting again, letting her know he didn’t really mind, even while he really did. She was Barton’s wife, he shouldn’t feel so good with her being so forward with him, but her thoughts were an open book to him, and he could feel how it comforted her to be so close to him. He also knew from the Hawk that it was okay, Darcy was a toucher, she loved being in contact with the people she cared about, and Bucky was one of those people now. “Just a bit surprised.”

“Okay, good,” she let him pulled her back down, tucking his hands around her hips. He kept them as low on her thighs as he could reach until she laughed at his still posture and wrapped them around her middle and leaned back against his chest. “I’m not going to molest you in the lab.”

“Feel like I’m taking liberties,” he told her as she resumed typing.

“Nope, just being a Hawk, Bucky Bear,” Darcy discarded the paper she was working on into an empty trash bin and pulled down the next one.

“Lady Hawk,” Tony burst through the doors, letting the glass clang shut. “How’s my favorite murder princess?” Bucky could feel Stark’s eyes roam over the two of them sharing a chair, his eyebrow cocked. “Looks like you picked up a shadow, there.”

“Shut up, Stark,” Darcy shuffled the papers on her desk and wiggled a little in Bucky’s lap, making him grunt awkwardly. She went back to typing, ignoring the billionaire.

“He okay to be in the labs?” Tony asked, idly wandering around the lab, touching stuff. It made Bucky’s hackles rise, it wasn’t his lab, he shouldn’t be touching stuff.

“I don’t know, Tony,” Darcy growled, dumping another spent page into the trash bin and pulling down another. She ran the fingers of one hand over Bucky’s, letting him know she was just as annoyed at the engineer’s antics as he was. “Why don’t you ask him?”

“Sassy,” Stark said, he swiped a hand at her, mimicking a cat’s claws. Darcy rolled her eyes, Bucky did, too.

“Annoying,” she tipped the page in her hands into the trash, following the other two, and pulled down another page. Her fingers worked so quickly over the keys that Bucky almost couldn’t keep up. “Tony,” she said after another minute of the other man wondering around and touching shit. “Do you need something, or are you just here to piss me off?”

“I have a reason, not that I need one,” the billionaire swung around dramatically and grinned at the two Hawks. “Capsicle called an Assemble; I am here to collect you.”

“Next time, send Clint,” Darcy pushed their chair back and stood. “Let’s go see what’s wrong today,” she held a hand out to Bucky and fitted their hands together. He was surprised to find that he felt no hesitation in letting her pull him from the chair, it felt right, and it scared him a little bit less to let her pull him to the elevator than it had that morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you all think.


	4. Hawks Assemble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm currently decaffeinated, so I don't have anything particularly interesting to say here.
> 
> Thank you to my beta, ktravierso, for being awesome as always.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tempest

Chapter 4: Hawks Assemble

The ride up to the penthouse was blessedly short. Darcy figured that was at least mostly because Jarvis was aware of how obnoxious Tony could be, and partially Starks need to make things bigger and better and faster. Whatever brought them to the top floor in less than a minute had her eternal gratitude, because being confined in a small space with Tony and Bucky was like getting a crazy hit of tension-filled testosterone. The two men glared at each other over her head, while Bucky’s fingers tightened dangerously around hers until she was worried she would have to let go of the man’s hand. The ding of the elevator’s arrival made something tiny inside of Darcy jump just a little before she pulled Bucky out behind her, not bothering to look at Tony, though she could feel her bond mate hesitate before shouldering past him with just a little more force than necessary. It made her smile just a tiny bit. Bucky was just as annoyed at the billionaire as she was for his blatant disregard of Jane’s lab space and her things.

She pulled Bucky down on one of the couches in the sunken section of the living room and curled into him in the same way she would curl into Clint, had he been there. “I thought Steve called an Assemble?” she looked over to Tony who had taken up his spot behind the bar, mixing something in a shaker. Darcy was willing to bet it was alcohol, probably undiluted by anything, cause that’s just how Tony was. “I see you and your ridiculously overpriced cocktail shaker.”

“What can I say,” Tony poured his drink into a martini glass and added a twist to the side of the glass, along with a glass stir. “Capsicle is a little slow today.” The billionaire shrugged and downed the drink and reached for the shaker again. Darcy turned her back to him and cuddled into Bucky, and poked experimentally at their bond with Clint. When Bucky didn’t push her away she tried again, feeling Clint waiting for the elevator down near the range, impatiently watching the numbers climb instead of fall towards him.

“I’m not as slow as you think,” Steve nodded at Bucky, a tiny smile on his face as he saw his friend almost relaxed on the couch, holding Darcy close. “How’s your day, Buck?”

The former asset just shrugged and looked down at Darcy, silently asking her to speak for him though their bond. “Peachy keen, jelly bean,” she winked at the Captain. “Bucky bear and I have had a very exciting morning of sending Jane back to bed, and were just going to do some world saving data entry when Ironhead came and busted up the party.”

Steve smiled at her and took the chair next to the couch, leaning back into the pliant leather cushions. “That sounds like a lot of fun,” he accepted a glass from Tony and sniffed it before putting it down on the coffee table and glaring at it. “Is this lighter fluid?”

“It’s vodka, Cap,” Tony dropped into a chair of his own, somehow not spilling a drop of his drink, lifting his glass to Steve as if to make a toast. “You’re all cozy and cuddly with our deadliest,” he looked over at Bucky for a beat and then back to Steve. “Female Russian assassin, you should be very familiar with it.”

“I am not anything with Natasha,” Steve growled and pushed the glass farther away from himself. “And even if I was, I wouldn’t drink that. It smells like it could make you blind just by thinking about drinking it.”

“It’s real Russian vodka, of course it could make you blind,” Tony threw back his second glass and set the martini glass down on the table with a ting of glass on glass. “It’ll also put hair on your chest, and dissolve your liver.”

“Yeah, not really selling it there, Stark,” Bucky picked up the glass and sniffed it before looking at Darcy. “It’s not really lighter fluid,” he assured her, even though she could have plucked that knowledge straight from his mind. He tipped his head back and let the clear liquid slide down his throat. Darcy could feel the brilliant burn down her esophagus and the delicious warmth it created in their belly. Bucky saluted her with the glass before setting it down.

The moment was broken when the Russian in question stepped off the elevator along with their third. Darcy tightened her grip on Bucky’s hand as Clint slid onto the couch next to her. “Took you long enough, Hawk,” she said, her eyes wandering over her husband, his hair damp with sweat and the deep shadows under his eyes. “You look horrible.”

“Need some touch,” he whispered, not quite touching her. He looked over at Bucky, who had faded back as soon as he’d sat down.

“Kiss her,” the soldier told him, his eyes locked with Clint’s. “I won’t run away.”

“You sure?” Darcy could feel the war inside of him, both urging him to complete the bond and hide from it at the same time. She went to pull her hand from his, but he tightened his grip. “You’ll feel it more if we’re touching.”

“I know,” he pulled her back against his chest and quirked a brow at the Hawk. “You gonna kiss your wife, man, or am I gonna have to show you how it’s done?”

“That a challenge?” Clint slid his hand over Darcy’s free hand, partially completing the bond though her. Bucky felt muffled but closer. Clint kept his eyes on the other man while he leaned into Darcy, their lips finding each other. He kept the kiss short and sweet before sitting back again. He watched at Bucky’s eyes darkened as their girl melted into his chest. “Can I get some touch from you, too?”

“You looking for a kiss, Hawkboy?”Bucky tipped his head, his metal arm rounding Darcy’s waist as she draped her legs over her husband’s lap.

“I wouldn’t say no,” Clint smirked and let Bucky’s fingers touch his arm, letting the bond settle for just long enough for him to see deep into the man who was wrapped around his wife. He could see the fantasy that had played though his mind weeks ago of Bucky joining them in bed, naked and willing, only this time it was played through Bucky’s eyes. Clint filed that thought away from when they were all alone.

“Okay,” Tony clapped his hands together. “Let’s leave the inappropriate touching until after our meeting, and you know, you aren’t on my couch.”

“Right,” Steve cleared his throat and gestured to Tony. “So we found a bit of a mole problem here back when we were looking for Bucky here, as most of you know,” he looked over at the Hawks, who all seemed to be comfortable on the couch with Darcy sandwiched between the two men, which was certainly a new development. He hadn’t seen a smile that big on the girl’s face in way too long, and Bucky almost looked content, or at least not constipated. “Jarvis, please enact security protocol Alpha Seven Five,” he glared at Tony. “Could you come up with less stupid names for these things?”

“It’s part of my charm,” the man in question answered, pouring what Darcy thought was his third drink, but she’d lost a little time in their bond, so it could be his fourth.

“Security protocols enacted, Captain,” Jarvis said from the speakers around the room. The Hawks could feel Bucky’s discomfort with the AI, but let it be. Jarvis took some getting used to, and they understood the similarities to Zola.

“Thank you,” Steve gestured to the windows which darkened and brought up a holoscreen. “We’ve been combing through every person that comes in or out of this building, from maintenance staff to former Shield agents, right down to the guy who delivers the plant food,” files loaded on the screen some blinking red, others filtering through until only blinking red ones left. “It seems our problem is a little bigger than we had thought.”

“Security sucks if these are all potential threats, Cap,” Darcy’s eyes flicked over the files, still just small squares on the screen, but she lost count at fifty. “I thought Stark Industries does a thorough background check on every employee.”

“We do,” Tony grumbled. “Seems not thorough enough.”

“No,” Natasha sat down on Bucky’s other side with her own glass; Darcy could smell the foul vodka smell from where she was curled up with the men. She also didn’t miss the tiny touch of fingertips that Steve and Natasha exchanged, but only because Bucky was watching too. “And now we have an infestation.”

“So what’s the plan?” Clint held Bucky’s hand with one hand and let the other wander up over Darcy’s ankle under her jeans. “Cause we can’t just make a hundred plus people disappear, even if they are Hydra.”

“They are not all Hydra, Agent Barton,” Jarvis interjected. “We have found ties to half a dozen different organizations that oppose the Avengers and or Shield.”

“What the fuck,” Clint’s head fell back against the couch. “You’re telling me that a bunch of spies are hanging out at the water coolers around the tower and they’re from like everywhere. Who’s actually working here?”

“There are over four thousand employees that work either in Avenger Tower or work in conjunction with Avenger Tower, Agent Barton.”

“Thank you for that statistic, Jarvis,” Darcy rolled her eyes. “But what that doesn’t tell us is how we fix our leak. And, how do we find out who knows what and where the information about our search for the Winter Soldier got back to Hydra?”

“Well,” Steve pulled up a schematic of the Tower. “First, the labs, or at least the Avenger labs have been isolated from the incident as far as we can tell,” the Tower colored blue and red with variations of purple in places. “We’ve kept Bucky mostly in Avenger-Only areas, which have been free of contamination since we do pretty much everything for ourselves in those areas, and maintenance and housekeeping aren’t permitted. We’ve also kept his identity as the Winter Soldier off any form of electronic record, so there’s that.”

“They don’t know we have the Winter Soldier,” Clint concluded.

“They don’t, and as far as we’ve been able to ascertain, they also think we’re still looking for him,” Tony sipped at the new drink in his hand, sliding down into his chair with more grace than Darcy thought he should have with that much alcohol coursing through his system. “Thanks to a little creative paperwork by Jarvis and yours truly,” he waved his glass around, not spilling a drop.

“So, how do we eradicate our problem?” Darcy asked again.

“Pepper,” Tony said simply. “She’s started moving assets around, so to speak. Review time is upon us, and she’s going to move anyone who looks suspicious to other sites. She’ll move other people, too, but mostly our unfriendly mole people will suddenly find their jobs outside of the Tower, then we’ll work on the people working for companies that just cater to the Tower.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” Bucky asked, the tension from the bond had loosened to a languid warmth that settled in his limbs, but the threat of discovery and possible consequences for his bond mates was making a whole new type of tension to build.

“Nothing,” Steve told him. “We go on as usual. We need to get the team combat ready for when these agents figure out what’s going on, cause you can bet they’ll retaliate once they’ve realize that they’ve been made, and we need to be ready. We need to retest your bond, now that it’s changed.” 

“No,” Darcy sat forward, pegging Steve with a hard look. “Nope, there is no way that we’re testing anything right now.” She turned her look to Tony, who just held up his hands. “The bond is way too unstable right now for you to go poking in our brains.”

“We need to test it before I can even think about letting you three out with the rest of the team,” the Captain shrugged. “You’re a liability if we don’t know how any of the three of you will react.”

“No,” Darcy curled back into Bucky’s arms, and pulled Clint closer to her. They were in agreement, Bucky didn’t want anyone poking at him, he’d had way too much of that in his lifetime. He knew his bond mates saw him as being fragile, and they were right. He’d only just let them start touching him, there was no way that they should test that resolve, and Clint didn’t want to test anything until they could go a whole day without having any kind of adverse effects from the bond. “There’s no point in testing it right now, anyway.”

“Darcy,” Steve sighed. “Okay, but we need to test things soon.”

“Not until Sam signs off on it,” Clint looked over his bond mates at the super soldier. “No medical testing until Bucky agrees.”

“Sir,” Jarvis interrupted. “I have an urgent matter that needs attention.”

“Not now Jarvis, we’re busy,” Tony waved away the AI like he was actually in the room. “No urgent matters during an Assemble, you know the rules.”

“Sir I must insist,” the AI continued. “There is an urgent message from Prince Thor.”

“Thor?” Tony looked around the room. “What’s he doing not being here; doesn’t he know what an Assemble means?”

“Usually it means you got bored and wanted a drinking buddy,” Darcy muttered to her boys, who chuckled at the memory of Tony laying drunkenly on the bar top while she and Clint watched, sitting around in full gear thinking there was an actual threat, only to find Tony blitzed out of his mind, and Pepper in Paris for the week.

“Prince Thor is in his apartment,” Jarvis replied. “It seems that Dr. Foster didn’t return after Lady Hawk sent her home.”

“Really?” Darcy jumped off the couch and looked up at the holoscreen. “Bring up the security feeds from the lab to Jane’s room. And don’t think we’re not going to talk about the usage of the forbidden nickname at a later date.”

“I apologize, Lady Hawk,” Jarvis did not sound in the least bit apologetic. “It seems my protocols surrounding your address have been altered.”

“Tony,” Darcy growled. “Okay, later.”

“There she is getting on the elevator,” Steve points at the elevators by the lab. “Man, she really needed sleep.”

“And there is the elevator on her floor, but she doesn’t get out,” Darcy was standing shoulder to shoulder with Steve right under the screen, the warm weight of Bucky and Clint close behind as they watched the footage play over and over. “Jarvis, does the elevator make any stops between the lab and Jane’s floor?”

“The elevator made four stops,” the AI told them, playing footage from each floor as the elevator stopped. No one got off on any of them.

“How come the elevator stopped if no one got off?” Clint asked.

“I do not have sufficient data to answer that question, Agent Barton,” Jarvis answered.

“Can you follow Jane’s bio marker from the lab?” Darcy watched the feeds again, tracing the path over and over.

“Dr. Foster’s bio maker was lost between the seventy fifth and seventy sixth floor. I have no explanation as to how this could have happened.”

“There,” Darcy paused the feeds and went back frame by frame; there was a jump in the playback that was nearly undetectable. “The seventy sixth floor camera was on a loop.”

“But that’s still the seventy sixth floor, how would they get her out of the Tower from there without coming across another camera?” Steve played the feed back and forth a few more times to confirm what Darcy had seen.

“Jarvis,” Bucky leaned into Darcy, letting his flesh hand find the skin just above her jeans so they were connected. “Run your entire playback for the last ten hours for any other anomalies. We can trace their path that way.” The team just looked at him. “I was a ghost for seventy years, I’ve got some tricks,” he shrugged. “And, who’s to say they’ve even left the Tower, they could be biding their time until we all run off halfcocked chasing nothing.”

“Jarvis do a complete audit of the Tower, any extraneous bio signatures, any anomalous readings, filter it all through here. And I want to know where each of those potential threats have been for those last ten hours Barnes is having you search through,” Tony pulled a heads up display from the bar and started moving stuff around as he searched manually. “And for fuck’s sake, get Thor up here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off to get coffee!


	5. Touch of Frost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been a bit slow on the updates lately. For those of you who read my other stories, you know my kid had surgery this past week, and I've been freaking out a bit about it. Thank you to everyone who sent encouragement and good thoughts. His surgery went great, he's healing really well, and hopefully this will be the end to our ear infection problem. Also, I should be back on my normal writing schedule this week, now that I'm not having a mini mommy meltdown.
> 
> As always, thank you to my marvelous beta, Kacie. Stay cool my friend!
> 
> Enjoy.

Tempest

Chapter 5: Touch of Frost

Darcy slipped her comm into her ear and looked over at her boys. Clint was busy fingering his way through his quiver, plucking out arrows and replacing them. He twirled a grappling arrow between his fingers before bobbing his head back and forth, weighing the shaft in his hand before putting it back in the quiver. He flashed Darcy a quick smile, his bottom lip between his teeth, pulling the quiver off the table and hefting it over his shoulder. Bucky was methodically buckling each matte black buckle on the front of his uniform, his face set in a blank stare, his eyes caught just over her shoulder as he checked his weapons, tension tight across his shoulders.

“So,” Darcy handed an extra comm to Bucky when he freed his hands of weaponry. “We got a plan?”

“Cap wants us back in Ops as soon as we’re suited up,” Clint clipped the quiver in tight, pulling the short straps as he tested his range of motion. “See what Jarvis has found.”

“Stevie’s just going to try and ground us,” Bucky pressed the comm into his ear, shaking his head as the small earpiece settled into his ear canal.

“When you turn it on, you’ll get the hearing back in that ear,” Darcy flashed the soldier a quick grin as she straightened the leg of her uniform, pushing the long k-bar knife, that she had long since liberated from Clint’s own weapons stash and claimed, deep into her boot. “It’s weird the first few times, but you’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t like feeling compromised,” he pulled the fingerless leather gloves over his hands and pulled them tight, flexing his fingers to get the fit right. “We should head out.”

Darcy nodded and hooked her leg around Clint’s automatically. “We really need to get you a new uniform,” she told Bucky as her fingers touched the tips of his, the only exposed skin other than his face. “This isn’t going to work during actual combat.”

“You leave yourselves vulnerable,” he looked at the holes in the calves of their pants. “It’s ill advised.”

“We know, but our cooperative powers don’t work if we’re not able to touch skin,” Clint shrugged and stepped away from Darcy. He slid his hand through Bucky’s hair, cupping the other man’s face gently with one hand, his thumb rubbing over the hollow of the soldier’s cheek. “We need to know what you bring to the team,” his fingers trailed down Bucky’s face so softly that he found himself leaning into them, lost in the Hawk’s eyes as scenes from past fights flitted through his mind, how seamlessly the Hawks worked together. “Accuracy, energy, and what?” Clint’s thumb ran across the space below his bottom lip. “I wonder how Darcy’s EMP is gonna affect that arm, too?” He winked at the slack jawed soldier and threw him a kiss as he stepped back. “So,” Clint stepped lightly around Bucky and smacked the flat of his hand on the thick leather that covered the soldier’s back side. “New uniforms?”

“Umm,” Bucky spun in his place and compulsively checked his weapons. “Right, let’s go.”

“Lead the way Winter Hawk,” Darcy caught Bucky’s eye. “I wanna watch you walk away,” she gave him a saucy wink and accepted a kiss on the apple of her cheek from her husband.

“I should feel so violated,” Bucky shook his head and snapped the holster on his thigh.

“But you don’t,” Clint pulled Darcy into his arms and kissed her soundly before giving her ass the same treatment he’d give the soldiers. “Come on Winter, work those thighs,” he clapped his hands. “Chop chop, we’re waiting to see what you’ve got.”

“So violated,” Bucky pushed the front door of the Hawk’s apartment open and strode out.

“Yes,” Darcy whispered almost covering the appreciative hum from her husband. “Those thighs are so, just…”

“Exactly,” Clint agreed.

“Are we going to find Jane, or are you two going to stand there and have inappropriate thoughts,” Bucky ducked his head back into the apartment. “Come on, Steve’s gotta get in at least one: ‘Bucky you’re not ready yet.’ Before we ignore him and find the science lady.” Darcy and Clint looked at each other and back at their third before both were making a break for the door. “That’s what I thought.”

*****

Tony stood in front of the windows of the penthouse where they had all left him, his Ironman suit still conveniently in its briefcase on top of the coffee table. Tony himself held a mug of coffee that he was waving at the screens. “Pull up sector seven,” he took a step to the left and watched the feed. “Run it in sync with sector three.” The billionaire watched and hummed to himself. “Okay, now go back to the same feed yesterday, same time.”

“They’re using the same loop on each floor,” Bucky let Darcy link their hands together, allowing her to see exactly what he was noticing. “But each floor isn’t exactly the same.”

“Well spotted Robocop,” Tony went to take a drink from his mug and found it empty. He frowned into its depths and then tossed it at the couch where it bounced and miraculously didn’t break.

“Was that an insult?” the Soldier whispered to Darcy, who shrugged. She called up what she remembered from the movies, which wasn’t much. “Metal robot cops gone bad?” He lifted a brow at her and she shrugged again. “I’m gonna go with insulted.”

“Probably a good call,” Darcy agreed and looked over at her husband, who was busy going through his arsenal again, fingering an arrow that Tony had left him on the table. “So, what do we know?”

“I have found thirty seven different anomalous readings in the past ten hours,” Jarvis changed the feeds that Tony was looking at to show all the looped cameras. “There are ten that are still in effect.” The ten in question expanded and filled the wall of windows.

“That is the corridor outside of the apartment of myself and the Lady Jane,” Thor dropped Mjolnir onto the coffee table next to the briefcase, the metal making almost no noise as it landed on the glass, reminding Darcy that it wasn’t necessarily heavy. “How long has this deception been in place?”

“This loop has been in place for approximately two hours and fourteen minutes,” Jarvis pulled the feed in question up to cover a large portion of the screen. “It is unclear why it was undetectable to my security protocols.”

“That’s right after we got to the lab, but we saw Jane get on the elevator,” Darcy leaned into Bucky as she studied the feeds. “Different elevator, that's the one by Tony’s lab, the one I usually use, but I didn't, cause you were with me this morning.”

“Jarvis,” Bucky squeezed Darcy’s hand and let go, stepping up to the screen to look at the loop. “Show me each anomaly as it became effective.”

“What are we thinking?” Clint stuffed the new arrow into his quiver and walked up behind his third, hooking his leg around Bucky’s even though it had no effect. “Follow the leader?”

Bucky let his fingers entwine with Clint’s, his head cocked to one side. “Exactly,” he reached back to Darcy, who took his other hand, the metal didn’t let them connect, but she could feel the idea the boys were projecting to her. “Let's head down to the labs and follow this up.”

“You think that’s a good idea, Buck,” Steve let his shield drop onto the couch, upsetting the coffee mug and knocking it to the floor.

“Come on Steve,” Tony huffed and picked up the now chipped mug. “I liked that one.”

“Then don’t leave it on the couch,” the Captain rolled his eyes and looked back to his friend. “You’re still figuring stuff out, I don’t think you’re ready to head out with the team.”

“Head out where, Steve,” Bucky rolled his shoulders feeling his metal arm calibrate, the fingers gently flexing around Darcy’s. “This is my home now, they infiltrated us.”

“All the more reason you should wait here,” Steve countered, stepping around the couch and over to his friend. “Let us handle this, we don’t want anyone to get a look at you and let the pieces fall into place. Right now, no one knows you're here.”

“I’m not sitting on my hands when I can help,” the Soldier dropped his partners hands. “Jane is Darcy’s friend, I can’t stand by and let some asshole take her and not go looking.”

“Because you care or because Darcy does?” the Captain all by hissed, the questioning look on his face making something in Bucky’s chest pull tight.

“Why does it matter?” Clint interjected, stepping up next to Bucky, his shoulder brushing the Soldier’s. “We’re a part of each other, if one hurts, so do the others. Right now our main priority is to get Jane back and flush these fuckers out of our home. You can have your little bitch fit later. Bucky wants to help, I say why not? He’s contributed more than you have already.”

“Okay,” Steve stepped back and grabbed his shield off the couch, activating the magnets on the back of his suit and attaching it. “You’re right, I just don’t want this to be the start of every enemy we’ve got coming here.”

“And we get that,” Darcy nodded, her fingers finding some skin under the bottom of Bucky’s tactical jacket, where his undershirt had pulled up. “But if they’re in the building on the Avenger floors, do we really think they don’t already know he’s here?”

“So, Jarvis, lets play follow the leader,” Clint hugged Darcy to him, his warm fingers joining hers under Bucky’s shirt so they all connected, the tension headache melting away as they shared Bucky’s plan. “Winter Hawk, you’ve got point.”

“How come we all use your name?” Bucky rolled his shoulders and tapped his ear, activating his comm. “Like I was saying, let's head down to the lab floors. Jarvis, you’re gonna guide us from there. Let me know the second there is another anomaly, or if any of the ones we’re following go back to live feed.”

“Understood, Winter Hawk,” the AI agreed. “The first one activated on the corridor outside of Sir’s lab.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” the Soldier stepped away from his mates and tucked his shirt back into the back of his pants. “We take the stairs.”

“That’s like fifteen floors,” Tony whined, pressing the combination into the top of his briefcase suit and waiting for it to activate. “Why not the elevators?”

“Dude, you’re in a metal suit that flies, what the fuck do you care? And who knows if someone is watching the feeds inside the elevators?” Darcy shrugged. “Plus, if they’ve got control of the cameras, what's to say they haven’t got control of the elevators too, or anything else in the building?”

“I am greatly offended Lady Hawk,” Jarvis almost sounded agast.

“Can you guarantee that no one else has hacked you?” Darcy crossed her arms under her breasts and looked up at the camera she knew was hidden in the corner of the room. “You didn’t know your video feeds were compromised until Bucky pointed it out.”

“I concede that you may have a point, and as such,” she swore she heard the computer sigh. “It is safest if you travel via the staircase. I apologise, sir. Once this has concluded I will do a full audit on my system.”

“When this is all over, we’re going to upgrade all your defenses,” Tony let his faceplate click closed over his face. “We gonna get this show on the road, kiddies? Cause time's a-wastin.”

Bucky just nodded and shouldered past Steve, who was still looking at his friend with pleading puppy eyes. “Buck up, Stevie,” Bucky shoved the door to the emergency stairs open, half expecting an alarm to go off. “I thought you liked starting fights.”

“Right,” Steve just nodded and followed his friend.

*****

“I have detected a new anomaly,” Jarvis’ voice perked Darcy up, her legs burning from their journeys up and down the Tower’s emergency stairs, trying to chase the path that Jane’s abductors might have taken, looking for any lead. So far they had come up empty handed. “The camera’s the overlook the Tower’s helicopter pad seems to have been compromised.”

“Fuck,” Clint looked up the stairs, the concrete and metal spiraled up from where they stood. “All the way back up again. Any chance we’ve ascertained whether or not the elevators are usable.”

“I’m afraid that I have been devoting all of my resources to the detection of anomalous activity in the Tower, and the monitoring of the flagged persons still on my biometric scanner,” the AI at least actually sounded like he felt bad about it. “The elevators have not been on my priority list.”

Clint just nodded and leaned back against the railing, mentally counting the floors and calculating the number of stairs before they got to the top. “Race you,” he turned to Bucky, who leaned on the rail next to him and entwined their fingers. “First one to the top gets the first shower when we get home.”

“A: we are home,” Bucky wiped his metal hand over his brow, pushing sweaty hair from where it was stuck to his face. “B: We have two bathrooms.”

“That mean you’re officially moving in?” Darcy shouldered her way between the men, stealing a hair tie from around Bucky’s wrist and pulling her long hair up out of her face. He just gave her a look. “What, mine broke around the fourth time we ran down to the seventy fifth floor. You got extras.”

“Whoever gets to the top first doesn’t have to move my shit to your place,” Bucky winked and took off up the steps.

“Cheater,” Clint sprinted after the Soldier, who was already a full floor ahead.

“You gonna run after them?” Steve eyed Darcy, who was braiding her hair over her shoulder, twisting the pilfered tie around the end.

“You really think their little bet is gonna make me help?” she just rolled her eyes and started up the stairs at a solid jog. “Please, I flash the big blues and give a little lip tremble and Clint melts.”

“Yeah, what about Bucky?” Steve kept pace with her easily. Sometimes Darcy really envied the fact that Steve had gotten the good serum, her knock off electric yellow shit just didn’t compare when it came to endurance.

“Oh, he never intended to make me help,” Darcy used the handrails at the top of the flight to pull her up the first couple of steps of the next one.

“Right,” Steve took ahold of her arm and pulled her along with him. “Just another couple of flights.”

“Ten, another ten,” she corrected. “Fuck, this super soldier stuff isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“You’ve been slacking on your workouts lately,” he told her, pulling her up another flight. He could almost see Clint’s boots as they rounded another turn, two floors up.

“Been a bit busy,” Darcy huffed. The sound of the emergency door creaking open above her was like heaven. Now all they had to do is get to Jane before whoever had taken her got away.

“No excuses,” Steve told her as they rounded the last turn, just as Clint ran out the door. “They’ve got a helicopter.”

“Really,” she pulled her hand from his and sprinted the last little distance out the door. “Well, shit.” Bucky had his Glock pointed at the helicopter as it's leaving the ground. “You can’t shoot it,” Darcy laid her hand over his and pulled it down. “You can’t shoot it down.”

“What do you suggest?” he turned to her and let her take the gun from his hand, shoving it into his holster.

Clint strapped his bow over his shoulders and rolled his shoulders. “We just gotta get on board.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Darcy shouted as her husband took off at a sprint to where the helicopter is quickly ascending. He used the railing around the helipad as a boost and launched into the air after the men who had Jane, his fingers just brushing the bottom ski before he lost his tenuous grip and falls over the side of the Tower. “No!” Darcy launched herself after him, only to be stopped by a metal arm around her waist. “Let me go!” she pushed at the man holding her, struggling as tears rolled down her face. “I gotta get him, I gotta help.” Pain lanced through her, and everything went white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me.


	6. White Noise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back!
> 
> Thank you to my wonderful beta, Kacie as always.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tempest

Chapter 6: White Noise

The world swam back into focus in pieces. It took what felt like tremendous concentration to hear the noises around her at first, making her press herself back into her own mind, where only warmth and happiness lived. But the incessant beeping ate at her half consciousness, finally forcing her to swim to the surface, pushing away the groggy warmth that surrounded her. Darcy pried her eyes open, feeling like the lids weighed a thousand pounds apiece. Her eyes opened, only to quickly shut again as the blinding light from the hospital room seared her eyeballs. She groaned and rubbed her face against the warm solid chest she was curled up into. Soft fingers sifted through her hair, the blunt nails scratching deliciously against her scalp, pulling a warm, low sound from her belly.

“That’s it, doll,” Bucky’s voice rumbled through his chest, his mind open to her, sending squishy, comforting thoughts to her. “Time to open those baby blues.”

“Don’t wanna,” Darcy pressed her face back into his chest. “So warm.”

“Come on, darling,” Clint coaxed, his fingers finding their way under the covers and rubbing circles on her skin. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

She groaned and leaned back into her husband’s chest, eye shut tight against the bright white light, finally registering that there were three separate beeps cutting through the room. “What happened?” She squinted one eye open and turned her head until she could see Clint’s face inches from her own.

“Clint took a swan dive off the Tower trying to save Jane,” Bucky told her, his hand that had been in her hair, traveling down her arm to lay against her hip. “And you went a little crazy.”

Clint pulled her leg up over his hip so she was laying flush against him, his arm wrapping over her body to touch their third “Took out all the power in Manhattan,” he kissed against the top of her head, pulling Bucky against her back.

“We blew out the windows on the upper levels, plus the surrounding block,” Bucky tucked his head over her shoulder. “The helipad looks like a bomb went off, official reports where that AIM hit us with a new flashbang grenade combo that acted like an EMP.”

“Needless to say, the chopper went down,” Clint told her, his free hand petting up and down her arm before he interlocked his fingers with Bucky’s on her hip. “Hulk pulled Jane free before it crashed, there were no other survivors.”

Darcy sucked in a deep breath and nodded, trying to process while the events of the evening played through the men’s minds. She could clearly see Clint turning his fall into a controlled dive as he pulled his bow and grappling arrow free, aiming carefully at the bottom of the balcony that curled off the side of the building, the wire wrapping itself around the railing as the windows all blew out. He tucked and rolled through the window frame of Steve’s apartment three floors down, landing on the super soldier's bed, before passing out.

“How long?” she asked, looking up at her boys, who were as deep in thought as she was, lost in their memories.

“I came to first and hobbled my sorry ass up to the helipad where you and the Winter Spark were still throwing off electricity like water from a fountain,” Clint nuzzled into her shoulder just under where Bucky had hooked his chin. “The power was still out, but it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes. Hulk, Thor and Jane were already at medical, but Steve was keeping watch on you two.”

“They couldn’t get close until Clint touched us,” Bucky’s hand flexed on her hip, digging both his and Clint’s fingers into her skin. “You lay there limp in my arms, this big ring of char on the ground around us, but you and I, completely unharmed. I could feel the sparks hitting my skin, but it never burned.”

“That answers one question then,” Darcy sighed and tried to push up away from the boys, their arms tightening around her. “Not an option, gotta pee.”

“You need some help, Darce?” Bucky rolled away, his feet hitting the floor and turned back to them, holding his hand out to her.

“Peeing?” she let him pull her up and to the edge of the bed. “Not really something I’m comfortable asking you to help me with, plus, I have been peeing semi-professionally since I was three I think I got this.”

“Getting to the bathroom,” he rolled his eyes so hard she thought they might stick that way. “It’s been more than twenty-four hours since you…” his hands waffled around, miming an explosion.

“I’m good,” she shook her head and pushed up from the mattress, marveling at the fact that someone had dragged a king size bed into one of the medical rooms in the tower. It was pushed all the way up against the widows on one side, where her husband was still lounging, and barely left enough room for the door to the ensuite bathroom to open all the way. Darcy wobbled a bit on the way across the floor, holding a little more heavily onto the door than she wanted to admit, but she turned and flashed a bright smile and a thumbs up to the boys still watching her. “Really, be right back.”

Darcy sat down heavily on the closed toilet lid and took a few deep breaths. The memories washed over her, the heart stopping moment when she saw her husband disappear over the side of the building, and the panic that gripped her heart when Bucky pulled her back from the edge, keeping her from jumping after him. She didn’t even realize she was crying until his strong arms wrapped around her, picking her up and sitting her across his legs.

“I’m fine, babe,” Clint whispered into her hair, his arms squeezed her against his chest and she tucked her head under his chin. “I’ve survived worse.” Darcy just nodded, her tears soaking into his thin undershirt. “Just take some deep breaths for me,” the stubble from his unshaven cheek pulled at her tangled curls and scraped at her scalp, she just wanted to bury herself inside of him and soak up his smell, surround herself with his comfort. “You really gotta pee, or you just wanted to break down alone.”

“Little of both,” she muttered, her nose tucked into the join of his throat, feeling his adam’s apple bobbing against her face.

“Okay,” he kissed her hair and moved to stand. “Up we go, you pee, and then come back to bed with me and Buck.”

“He seems so calm,” Darcy looked back to where the door was closed. “Like he never ran from us.”

“I think he had an awakening,” her husband shrugged. “We talked while you were out.”

“About?” she shuffled around, her arms still around his waist, not quite ready to let him go.

“The two of us,” he shrugged, rubbing his chin into her hair. “The three of us, stuff you and I’ve talked about. What we want for the future, how we can make this all work, lots of stuff.”

“And?” she prompted.

“I think we’re gonna be okay,” Clint tipped her chin up and kissed her tear stained lips. “I love you, Lady Hawk.”

“Love you, too,” she smiled into his lips as they lingered over hers. “Now get out, I gotta pee.” She smacked at his ass as he went to slip out the door, earning herself a surprised little yelp before the door clicked closed.

*****

Steve was leaning against the footboard of their bed when Darcy finally came out of the bathroom, much refreshed, with her teeth brushed and her face washed of the evidence of her breakdown.  
“It's good to see you up and about,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

“You worry about me, Stevie?” she asked, stepping into his open arms and letting him pull her into a hug that was almost too tight. “I’m okay.”

“Of course I worried about you,” he mumbled into the crown of her head, pulling her in for one last squeeze before pushing her to arms length. “You and Buck,” he shook his head and looked over at his best friend who was sitting on the bed up against the pillows, holding her husband’s hand. “You exploded,” Steve shook his head again. “It wasn’t like that energy burst you do, it was full on explosion, like a grenade went off, it knocked me back into the stairwell and down the steps, Tony went flying into the next building. If Bruce hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have been able to get to Jane before the helicopter went down.”

Darcy did her best to swallow that little bit of information down, filing it away for later contemplation. “So who was it?” she crawled back into bed, letting Bucky place her between him and Clint, tucking her up under his arm as her husband lay his head on her lap. “Bucky mentioned AIM.”

“Yeah,” Steve pulled out a Starkpad and swiped his finger across the display, holding it out to her. “Three AIM operatives died in the crash, we’ve got the Tower locked down to everyone but Avengers and our support staff at the moment. Stark Industries has been moved off site for the time being. We’re calling it a safety precaution, as there was an attack on the Tower, but we’re using it to weed out anymore AIM we can find, etcetera.”

Darcy nodded and swiped through the faces on the screen. “This guy,” she turned it around to show the Captain. “He worked down on fifteen, at the coffee shop,” she let Steve take the pad back. “I saw him like every day, we chatted while he made coffee, he would have known that I was on my way into work, cause Jane would have talked to him when she went down to get her fix.”

“I’ll pull up the cameras from that time in the shop, see if he talked to anyone else,” Steve shut off the pad and nodded to her. “Thanks, Darce.”

“It’s what I’m here for, Cap,” she winked at him, pulling Bucky’s arms more securely around her, feeling his anger at the ease that they were infiltrated, that there was a person that Darcy had known that had caused the attack, that she had been alone with him often, daily. 

“Whatever you say, Lady Hawk,” a wicked smile crossed over the captain’s face. “You just keep those boys of yours in line. I’m going to go run that video, and pull Tony from his sulking over the suit you and Winter Hawk broke, see if he wants to play.”

“Yep,” Darcy wiggled between the boys, scooting herself further down the bed so she could wrap her arms around both boys and pull their comforting presence around her. “I’m going to enjoy my snuggles, and you get your lazy butt to work.”

“Menace,” Steve chuckled and pulled the door shut behind him.

*****

Tony helped Steve move all of Bucky’s things into the Hawk’s suite before Darcy was released from Medical, the scant few boxes greeting her as Clint carried her piggy back into the apartment. Had she been on her own two feet she would have stopped dead in the entry, but Clint just carried her through the living room and deposited her on the king sized bed in their bedroom.

“So,” she looked at the boys as they stood at the foot of the bed, while she lounged on the pillows. Bucky dropped their things on the floor, and raised a brow. “You’ve moved in.”

“My stuff's here,” he shrugged. “Don’t know how much moving in I’ve done.”

“What’s it mean?” she looked between the boys. “Cause I’m kinda hoping some stuff, but I don’t wanna push.”

“Mean’s I’m trying, doll,” Bucky rounded the bed to sit on the side that had been his for weeks, whether he stayed the night or not. “Means we’re going to work on this bond, and the touching, and we’ll see how it goes.”

“Okay,” Darcy smiled up at him and leaned over, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek. “So, I’ve been in bed for like two days, and I’m itchy, what am I doing in bed again?”

“Doc said you’re electrolytes were really, crazy low,” Clint handed her a sports drink and tumbled onto the bed on her other side. “She wants you to rehydrate and rest for at least another day, before jumping back into running after bad guys and shooting things.”

“Can I shoot non-bad guy related stuff?” she took a long drink of the neon purple drink, trying not to taste it. “Cause I could use some time at the range, might get this twitchiness out.”

“Probably shouldn’t,” Bucky shrugged.

“That didn’t sound like a no to me,” she grinned at the super soldier, who did his best not to grin back, failing admirably. “Let’s go.”

“Shower first, darling,” her husband told her, accepting the bottle from her hands. “It’s been two days, and you’re getting smelly.”

“You are too,” she nudged his leg. “I seem to recall a bet about racing to the top of the Tower, didn’t Bucky win?”

“Cause he cheated, and he already showered,” Clint stuck his tongue out at the other man, who answered with a one fingered salute. “Cheaters never prosper.”

“And yet,” Bucky held his hands out, a smile wide on his lips. “I’m the only one who’s daisy fresh.”

“You keep it up, and I’m taking Darcy to the shower and giving you a mind full of porn,” the archer raised a brow at him. “Or are you angling for some good mind smut.”

“Please,” the Soldier rolled his eyes and dropped back down on the bed. “Darcy wouldn’t do that to me.”

“I don’t know,” she bobbed her head from side to side. “I saw that little fantasy you had.” She watched as the tips of Bucky’s ears turned pink. “You can’t deny it, cause I know it was yours.”

“Was Clint’s first,” he mumbled, his hands covering his face, unwilling to look at her, even as she tried to pry his hands away.

“It’s totally okay with me,” Darcy grinned down at him, her hair surrounding his face as she leaned over him. “Did Clint ever tell you about the time that Natasha walked in on us.”

“Oh come on,” Clint groaned. “It took me like an hour to coax you out of the bedroom, and only after I threatened not to go get you coffee did you come out. Then you gave Steve the lecture of his life about breaking into people's apartments.”

“I thought you said Natalia walked in on you,” Bucky looked confused.

“Steve sent Nat after Darcy chased him out of the apartment with her boobs,” Clint answered unhelpfully.

“You really need to start from the beginning.”

“Steve came into Clint’s apartment to talk to him about something,” Darcy lay back down on the bed, her hair fanning out around her head. “I came out of the bedroom in just one of Clint’s old shirts, not seeing him standing in the living room.”

“She flashed some bare ass while she was reaching for something, and Steve-O made the most unmanly squeak.”

“Please, you were dead to the world in the other room, not to mention you didn’t have your ears in,” Darcy pushed him away, palm staying against his face as she turned back to Bucky. “Stevie-boy blushed so hard, stammering like an idiot. I told him that he’d yelled at me just fine the day before, he needed to stop being such a virgin, and threatened to flash him if he couldn't get it together.”

“I see that ending well,” Bucky tried to keep his chuckles in, but they burst out between his words.

“Yeah, so I finally whipped my shirt off, and he nearly knocked himself out running into the door,” she giggled. “He sent Natasha to come get us after that.”

“By that time, I’d gotten up and found my beautiful naked girlfriend in the living room, and was two fingers deep inside, when Nat interrupted us,” Clint kissed the side of Darcy’s face. “My poor girl ran into the bedroom, leaving me naked in the living room with my best friend trying her best to unsee what she’d just seen.”

“Not like it was the worst thing she’d ever seen you do,” Darcy added.

“Not by a long shot,” the archer admitted. 

“Okay,” Bucky just looked between his bond mates. “So, is Darcy going to shower, or are we gonna talk about the things that Natalia has seen that she shouldn’t have some more.”

“Yep,” Darcy smacked a kiss on her husbands lips and rolled to Bucky, looking him in the eye for just a moment before landing a kiss on the corner of his mouth. “I need to be spring fresh like our Winter Hawk,” she tumbled off the bed onto her feet, feeling the weight of her mates’ gazes on her back all the way into the bathroom. “Then we’re going to the range, see what we can do. Wear shorts, I wanna test stuff.” She shut the door behind herself and turned on the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So?


	7. Bow and Arrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are so close to the end on this one! I'm planning on one more chapter and an epilogue. 
> 
> Thank you to my awesome beta, Kacie, who encourages my insanity. Love!
> 
> Enjoy.

Tempest

Chapter 7: Bow and Arrow

Bucky held the bow awkwardly in his left hand as he watched Darcy line up her shot, shoulders relaxed as she looked down the lane. She let out a long, slow breath and let the arrow fly. He watched as it hit the outer ring of the target and she lowered the bow and raised a brow at him.

“I thought you were good at this,” he raised his brow right back at her.

“Oh,” a little smile crept across her face making things in his gut stir, things that had been completely dormant until he had bonded with the Hawks. He’d honestly been a little worried that Hydra had managed to burn his sex drive out of him, but this little girl and her epically horny husband had turned that right around. “I am, I just need a little boost.” Darcy flicked her gaze over her shoulder at said husband, who sauntered over to the girl, handing her another arrow and slipped his hands around her waist, tucking his fingers under her shirt. Clint turned to Bucky and blew a kiss while Darcy lined up another shot. She didn’t even look as she released the arrow, winking at the Soldier as the arrow slid like a hot knife through butter into the dead center of the target. “Your turn.”

“The Hawk gonna grope me while I shoot too?” he asked as he pulled an arrow from the bucket they were using as a quiver between their lanes. Bucky nocked the arrow awkwardly, trying to pull the knowledge that had filtered into his own mind while he’d been connected with the Hawks. He understood the basic mechanics, and had the advantage of being a long time sharp shooter. The arrow flew from the bow, hitting the wall behind the target. “That did not go the way I planned.”

“Maybe some groping now?” Clint wiggled his eyebrows at Bucky, making grabby hands at him from his place behind Darcy, who held her hand over her mouth to try to contain her raucous laughter.

“Yeah, show me this magic we do,” Bucky raised the bow again and tried to relax his shoulders as Clint stepped up behind him. He and Clint had been sleeping in the same bed since before Darcy and he had basically exploded on the helipad, but he still tensed when the other man got close. At least until he felt the calloused pads of Clint’s fingers slipping under the hem of his shirt and gripping firmly onto his hips, the archers front flush against his back. He felt himself melt into the other man and the bow becoming an extension of his arm. As their minds interlocked, the weight of the bow became the same as the weight he felt when he held his rifle in his hands. He aimed down the lane and released the arrow like he’d done it a million times. The arrow found its target, sinking deeply into the center of the bullseye.

“Feel good?” Clint asked, his chin hooked over Bucky’s shoulder as the soldier lowered the bow again, his breath slow and steady.

“Yeah,” he leaned back into the other man and smiled. He picked up another arrow, not bothering to assume proper stance as he raised the bow again and released the arrow down the lane without looking. “Feels kinda awesome.” He turned his head so his nose ran along the side of Clint’s, sharing breath with the archer. “It always feel this good?”

“Always,” Darcy slipped around his front and slipped her fingers over her husband's, trapping Bucky between them. “Anything we do as a unit, it feels amazing,” she stood on her toes, nuzzling her lips just under Bucky’s ear, the tip of her tongue just grazing the lobe for a moment before she captured it between her lips. “Go ahead and kiss him, Buck,” she whispered, the words traveling through his brain, echoing deep. “Please.”

“But,” his protest died on his tongue as she licked a stripe up the side of his neck, nerve endings lighting up and traveling straight to his groin.

“Everything feels better,” Clint whispered against his lips. The archer pressed up and over Bucky’s shoulder, closing the last fraction of an inch between them, his lips soft and a little dry as they moved over his.

“So good,” Darcy smiled into his neck, breathing in the scent of his skin as they kissed. “It’s my turn next.”

*****

Jane’s lab was completely empty when Darcy and Bucky made their way down. The scientist was still being coddled by her larger-than-life god of a boyfriend and Thor wasn’t quite ready to let her venture off alone, which meant that Darcy got undisturbed time alone in the lab to catch up on her own work. Bucky pulled her down across his lap as he sat on her rolling desk chair and scooted it up to the desk, handing her the scrap of paper on top of the pile she’d been working on nearly a week before.

“You know, I’d probably get a lot more done without you here,” she pulled up the data entry program she needed and let her fingers fly over the keyboard. “You’re kinda a distraction, like a big one.”

“You thinking naughty thoughts, Lady Hawk,” Bucky smirked, running the tip of his nose along the base of her neck just above the neckline of her t-shirt. “I’m gonna tell your husband on you.”

“Oh you are,” Darcy wiggled a little in his lap as she kept her hand on the keyboard. “You gonna tell him that you’re thinking about bending me over this desk, too?” She laughed as Bucky went completely still beneath her. “Relax Bucky Bear, you aren’t projecting, and Clint doesn’t care, you’re a Hawk now.”

“Kissing with your husband around and participating is one thing, doll,” his hands clamped down on her hips and held her steady. “But he’s not here.”

“Bucky,” she dropped the sheet of paper into the trash by the desk and turned around, standing so she could lean against the desk and look at the man who wouldn’t meet her eye. Darcy tipped his chin up to look at her. “You’re a Hawk,” she leaned in a brushed her lips carefully over his. “This is all okay.”

“But,” he sighed. “Look, Darcy,” his fingers found their way under the hem of her shirt, the soft skin of her stomach under his fingertips grounding him as their minds entermingled. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what? Just do what feels right,” she slipped her hands into his hair and slid over his legs, her knees hanging over the arms of the chair. She felt completely secure with his hands holding her and keeping her from falling off his lap, keeping a respectable enough distance between them. “This isn’t conventional, and there isn’t a rule book, but if you want to touch me, if you want to touch Clint, it's alright.”

“I don’t want to be that thing that weasels into your marriage,” his mind was full of bits and pieces of memories from when he was young, slipping out the back window of an apartment, only one sock on as a husband came home. His pants dropped on his head as he hid on the fire escape, shimmying into the stiff material. “I’m not looking to mess things up.”

“You’re a part of our marriage, baby,” Darcy’s fingers wandered down from the tips of his long hair and over his shoulders and down his arms to where his hands cupped her hips. “Bucky, you aren’t sneaking around, this is fully sanctioned and encouraged touching. You can fantasize about bending me over the desk, you can conspire with Clint about actually doing it.” She ran her nose along his and smiled into his lips again. “But right now, we need to get this data input into the computer, so I’m not so far behind I can’t see my own ass, okay?”

“I’ll think quieter,” Bucky nodded and let her steal a brief kiss. “But I can’t leave.”

“Don’t want you to,” she carefully turned around in his lap and faced her computer again, grabbing a new piece of paper. “And you can’t anyway. Cap demanded that none of us were alone until they finish dealing with this mole problem, and you are my buddy.”

“Remind me how that happened?”

“I vetoed you and Clint hanging out in the gym all day, cause when the two of you get all sweaty together, I wanna be around to watch,” Darcy patted his left hand where it was still cupping her hip just under the hem of her shirt. “Plus, if I left you with the hubs, he would probably have already shoved his hand down your pants, and I didn’t think you were quite ready for that yet.”

“I appreciate you looking out for me,” Bucky huffed a laugh against the back of her neck. “How much of this shit you gotta enter, anyhow?” Darcy gestured to the heaping pile of notes on the right side of her desk and then over to the lab table covered in almost neat little piles. “We’re never leaving.”

“Dinner's at seven in the Hawk household,” she patted his hand again. “Have you ever known me to miss diner?”

“Promise?” he leaned back in the chair and watched her type. “Cause we haven’t made it four hours without Clint needing touch of some kind ever.”

“I think he got his touch in for a while,” Darcy dropped another piece of paper into the can by the desk. “Lots of touching before Steve showed up in the range. Poor Steve, we keep traumatizing that boy.”

“Stevie’s not as innocent as he pretends,” Bucky smirked. “I have so many stories, babydoll, you would be scandalized if you knew.”

“Really?” she danced about on his legs for a moment. “More scandalous than him walking in on us earlier?”

“Three fully clothed individuals kissing, yeah, much more scandalous.”

“Start talking, Bucky Bear.”

*****

The common room was quiet as Steve paced in front of the screens filled with red dots, marking the whereabouts of the possible moles intermingle with blue and purple dots. Steve frowned as he scrolled through files. He flicked away files that Jarvis had verified were tampered with or falsified.

“We still have more than a dozen people we can’t verify,” the Captain rubbed his head, pushing tension filled muscles on his brow. “How did this happen in the first place?”

“I think I’ve figured that out,” Jane said from where she was tucked under Thor’s arm, a stark white bandage around her upper arm where she’d gotten a nasty cut from the helicopter’s window as Hulk had broken it open to save her. She had nineteen stitches running down over her shoulder, but other than that and some bruising from being manhandled by a giant rage monster, who had been as gentle with her as possible, she was unscathed. Darcy still couldn’t quite look her in the eye, feeling more than a little guilty for the crash. “So, no computer is completely impervious to viruses, right?” She looked over to Tony who just shrugged and nodded. “The reason that Mac always touted that they were virus free is because once upon a time few people bothered to write viruses for their software. It's easier to write malware for highly used software, and it has a better impact, cause you know more people affected. But we’ve been finding all kinds of issues with Jarvis since my kidnapping. Holes where there shouldn't be holes.”

“You think someone, or someones are working their ways into the backdoors in Jarvis’ programing and sneaking their way in?” Tony scoffed. “Impossible.”

“Arrogant,” Jane sneered. “We already know someone's gotten in, they fucked with the cameras and the biosensors. Get off your high ass horse, Stark.”

“But if they’re in Jarvis’ systems, how come they don’t know about Bucky?” Steve reasoned, holding his hand up to stop both Jane and Tony from talking. “Okay, so we’ve kept his name off the computer, but Jarvis knows he’s here.”

“I’ll take that one,” Darcy smiled wickedly from where she was sitting across her husband's lap, her feet in Bucky’s. “When we introduced Bucky to Jarvis, we kept it to Sergeant Barnes. He hears us call him Bucky, but it's not on anything official. We kept it off recordings that can be accessed off the servers, it's all Avenger only shit, and that’s separate from Stark Industries servers. They’re in Jarvis, but they aren’t in here.”

“I’m not sure that makes sense, doll,” Bucky tipped his head trying to follow her logic. “Jarvis is Jarvis, if they’re in part of his system, wouldn’t they be able to get into the rest.”

“Not necessarily,” Tony rubbed his chin and wandered off.

“Did that actually answer anything?” Steve looked over to where Tony disappeared. “I mean, what’s the plan other than to clean house?”

“Pack your bags, kiddos,” Tony popped back into the room a tablet in his hand. “We’re all flying to the brand new and completely unoccupied Avenger’s Training Facility.” He waved the tablet at them and then disappeared again.

“I’m really pretty sure I don’t like him,” Bucky whispered loudly enough for Clint and Darcy, and Steve to hear him.

“He takes some getting used to,” Clint knocked shoulders with the other man and pushed Darcy to her feet. “Sounds like we’re going on a vacation.”

“But,” Darcy looked over at Steve and then to the door that Tony had left though. “Aren’t people going to like notice we’re gone?”

“Taking care of it,” Tony shouted from the next room. “Don’t forget your bathing suits, there's a pool.”

“Oh what the fuck,” Clint pulled Bucky up off the couch and laced his fingers with Bucky’s. “I bet there's a hot tub, too.”

“No one leave Clint alone with the hot tub,” Natasha tossed over her shoulder as she made her way to the stairs. “I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to why.”

“I know why,” Darcy whispered to Bucky. “It was so much fun,” she smirked. “Maybe we need to start posting a sign when we’re gonna fuck, cause Nats has walked in on us one too many times.”

“I think she likes to watch.”

“Tell her to watch Steve,” Darcy grumbled and pulled the boys behind her. Bucky just looked at the two other Hawks and shrugged.

“I’m guessing there was sex in the hot tub,” he said absently. “There's a hot tub in the tower?”

“Not one we’re allowed to use.”

“But I can, right?” Bucky pressed.

“You’re a Hawk, means the Tower pool is kinda not open unless we promise to keep clothes on and have a chaperone,” Darcy shrugged, pushing the memories of Clint and Darcy’s debauched adventures in the pool over to Bucky. “So, who’s up for a shower before we leave? Have we worked up to naked times yet?” she tipped her head back to look at their third, who had stopped moving. “Is that a yes or a no, or are you processing?”

“Darcy if you broke Bucky before we get naked time, I’m going to be very put out,” Clint pulled her closer to him, placing a kiss on her lips. “And then I’m going to put out anyway.”

“Love you, Hawk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos are love, Comments make my world go round.


	8. Here and Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I bring you the conclusion of part three of Circling Hawks. I was planning on making this the end of the series, but some very good arguments have come through for continuing. So stay tuned.
> 
> Thank you to my Beta Kacie, who talks me out of stupid shit all the time... and then talks me back into it, again. Love!
> 
> Enjoy.

Tempest

Chapter 8: Here and Now

Bucky slowly folded his clothes back into the duffle bag that he’d only recently finished unpacking, carefully pressing the creases into his jeans, his breathing calculatingly slow as he listened to the shower running in the other room.

“She’s taking forever on purpose,” Clint said from where he was lounging on the bed, his hands folded behind his head, unabashedly watching the other man. “She got her hopes up.”

“Sorry,” Bucky dropped the pair of jeans into the bag and turned to the Hawk, leaning against the dresser carefully. “I’m just not quite there yet.”

“No worries, man,” he winked at the Soldier. “Sometimes the waiting makes it better.”

“You’ve been waiting a while,” Bucky pushed off the dresser, setting the mirror swinging against the wall and holding a hand against the silver surface to stop it from tipping too far, the glass clicking on his metal fingers. “You shouldn’t have to on my account.”

“We talked about this with Sam,” Clint sat up and rolled to his feet, stalking across the floor. “We’re taking this all one step at a time.”

“I think we’ve moved beyond Sam’s advice,” Bucky folded the last of his jeans and dumped it unceremoniously into the bag, bending to zip it closed. “I’m touching, we’re all sleeping together, and when was the last time either of you woke up without me in bed?”

“You still don’t sleep through the night,” the archer shrugged, his arm rounding Bucky’s waist and pulling the man against his chest. Clint was several inches shorter than Bucky, but he felt so secure with him at his back, the eternal itch that ran down the back of his neck anytime he was awake fell silent when Clint held him. The Hawk had his back, and would never let anything creep up on him. “We can both feel your nightmares.”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to sleep like I used to, Clint,” Bucky laced his fingers through Clint’s, holding the other man’s arm tight to his chest. “And I hate that you have to see what I did.”

“Wasn’t you,” Clint nuzzled his nose along the length of his neck, his lips following, leaving a wet trail until he sucked gently at Bucky’s jaw. “You’ve seen Darcy and my demons, it's no different.”

“It is,” the Soldier melted back into the other man, his head falling back until their cheeks slid together.

“You’re right,” he agreed, turning Bucky in his arms so he could pull them flush together. “When I was an assassin, it was all my choice,” he pulled Bucky down to him and ran the tip of his tongue from the divot in the Soldier’s chin along the razor's edge of his jaw, all the way up to his ear. “They used electroshock and chemicals to make you kill people,” he pulled the other man’s earlobe into his mouth and sucked gently. “And look where we are now.”

“Getting busy without me,” Darcy’s voice came from the open bathroom door. “I thought we agreed to keep our hands to ourselves until we were settled upstate,” she waited until the boys stepped away from each other, both looking at her, before she dropped her towel to the floor and walked towards them. “No fair starting something without me,” she walked right past the two men, their eyes roaming tangibly over her wet skin, and pulled a pair of panties out of the dresser, slipping them on. “You two gonna finish packing? Wheels up in twenty.”

“Babydoll,” Bucky breathed as she slid her bra on, hooking it closed before drawing it over her breasts. “We’re,” he stepped back until he could feel Clint again at his back, reaching back for the other man’s hand, searching for some grounding. “We’re sorry.”

“Oh Bucky bear,” she peered over her shoulder at the boys, standing pressed together as they watched her. “Nothing to be sorry for, just next time, wait for me,” she blew him a kiss, and slid her jeans over her hips. “Now, I might need some kisses, too.”

*****

They managed to only be a few minutes late for the jet, and were met at the end of the ramp by Steve in full disapproving face. Only Bucky managed to look even slightly chastised by the Captain’s irritation.

“You couldn’t wait two hours until we got to the Avenger’s facility, could you,” Steve flicked the collar of Bucky’s grey button down, moving the fabric just enough to show the rapidly healing bruise. “Come on, Buck.”

“Just cause you ain’t getting any, don’t mean you get to push at me for having a roll,” Bucky shouldered past his old friend, tossing his bag onto the pile at the top of the ramp. “You talk to Natalia yet, Punk? I’m sure you lay on that charm I tried to beat into you as a kid, she’ll take you for a nice roll of your own.”

“How do you know I haven’t tried?” the Captain took a last swipe at his friend as he passed.

“Cause if you did,” Clint dropped his bag over Bucky’s, setting his hands on his hips and looking the Captain up and down. “You wouldn’t have your panties in a bunch over a hickey.”

“You’ve got one, too, Hawk,” Steve eyed the darker purple bruise on the archer’s neck.

“More than one,” Darcy smacked her husband’s ass, pushing him past the Captain. “Won’t tell you where the others are, though,” she held her arms open for Steve. “Need some sugar from my favorite Captain.”

“Don’t get you off for being late, doll,” Steve pulled her into his arms, taking a deep breath of his friend, picking up the faint scent of her mates on her skin. “But I appreciate your hugs.”

“You talk to Nats, you’ll get better than my hugs, Cap,” she pecked him on the cheek and slipped around him. “We gonna get this boat in the air, or what,” she dropped into the seat between her two boys and clicked her harness shut. “What are you slow pokes waiting for anyhow?”

“Just you, sestra,” the Widow flicked a switch and pulled the ramp up. “Jarvis, are we clear for departure?”

“You have been cleared,” the AI responded. “Safe travels.”

“Jarvis not coming?” Darcy tipped as far forward as her harness would allow, letting the feel of both men touching her ground away the fact that she really didn’t like to fly, and looked at Tony.

“Nope,” the billionaire kept his nose in his tablet. “We’re completely out of Jarvis’ hands upstate.”

“Okay,” she sat back in her seat, but kept her eyes on Tony. “Umm, who’s running shit then?”

“Friday,” was the only answer.

“It’s really Thursday,” Darcy checked her watch, yep still Thursday. “For like three more hours. It’ll even still be Thursday when we land.”

“No,” Tony set the tablet aside and looked at her. She couldn’t help but notice how tired he looked, dark circles under his eyes, mouth drawn tight; he looked like he’d aged twenty years since they’d assembled in the common room earlier. “Friday is the AI that will be taking over for Jarvis at the training facility. Jarvis was the leak, I’m attempting to fix that, but for now, we’ll be using Friday.”

“Oh,” she felt bad for asking, but nodded anyway. “When do we meet Friday, then?”

“Tomorrow,” Tony picked his tablet back up and proceeded to ignore her.

“So on Friday,” Clint raised a brow, squeezing Darcy’s fingers between his. “We’re meeting Friday on Friday.”

“Can it Hawk, or I’m going to restrict your access to everything but your own quarters,” Tony growled, not looking up. “And I can have Friday lock your mates out of everything too.”

“Being quiet now,” the archer slumped down in his seat. “Are we there yet?” he grumbled.

“Don’t even start with me,” Natasha steared the jet towards their new home. “We’re not even fucking out of Manhattan yet,” she whispered to Steve, who just laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “For the record, I’m completely on board with some rolling with you, Cap.”

“I think we covered that pretty thoroughly last night,” Steve whispered back, squeezing her shoulder before slipping into the seat next to hers. “But I wouldn’t mind reopening negotiations.”

“We’ll be landing in an hour,” she winked.

“I’m counting the minutes.”

“It’s like listening to mom and dad flirt,” Darcy whispered to Clint and Bucky.

“I’m actually older,” Bucky smirked.

“I can hear you, jerk,” Steve called over his shoulder.

Bucky shrugged. “It’s true,” he leaned his head back against the metal wall of the jet, closing his eyes. “And I know you ain’t given it up yet. Natalia you treat that boy good, I don’t wanna have to have words.”

“Shut up, Yasha.”

*****

Steve burst through the doors of Jane and Darcy’s brand new lab at the Avenger’s Upstate Training Facility, his tablet clutched tightly in his hands. “Hey you gotta check this out,” Steve flicked his fingers over the screen to pull up the footage he wanted Bucky to look at, ignoring the noises that were coming from across the lab. Jane’s machines always sounded like they were seconds away from exploding, a little moaning and groaning, some creaking; totally normal operations. “It’s all over the news,” he looked up from his tablet, holding it out towards the desk that Darcy had claimed, and froze. “And you’re naked.” Bucky’s bare backside faced him, the Soldier’s pants bunched down around his ankles, his hips pushed flush against Darcy, who was bent over the desk, her hands being held tight by an equally naked Hawkeye. Steve clamped a hand over his eyes, resisting the urge to peek through his fingers.

“Hey Cap,” Darcy laughed over her shoulder, the sound drowning in a low moan as the desk squeaked against the hard concrete floor of the lab. “We’re a bit busy right now.” Two very masculine laughs joined hers.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Steve rubbed his temples with the hand still held over his eyes. “Umm,” he waved towards the door with the hand still clutching the tablet, thankful he’d kept a hold of it. Tony would kill him if he broke another one. “I’m just going to go,” he slowly backed his way toward the exit, hitting a lab bench hard with his hip. “Fuck,” he spun and groped at the bench making his way around it. “I’m so sorry,” he hit the wall inches from the door. “Damn it. Come find me when you’re done, shit, I’m sorry.”

The door to the lab slammed shut, and the three occupants descended into hysterical laughter. “Oh, god,” Darcy lay flat on the desk, her face pressed against the cool metal surface as she tried to pull herself together. “I can’t…”

“Did you see his face?” Clint lay down next to his wife, his face pressed into her bare waist while Bucky held himself up on his hands, his laughter traveling through his body and into Darcy’s, causing all three to moan in pleasure. “Fuck.”

*****

The newscast was already pulled up on the holoscreen in the common room when the Hawks made their appearance. Steve was holding a bottle of water, completely unopened in one hand as he paced back and forth, typing something on his tablet. Probably talking to Tony, who was out of town at MIT for some Tech thing. He stopped when he heard them enter, a deep blush creeping up the back of his neck and staining his cheeks.

“Oh come on, Cap,” Darcy pulled the water bottle out of his hands and cracking it open, taking a long drink. “Ain’t nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“You sound more and more like him every day,” Steve let her hand the bottle back to him and took his own drink. “It doesn’t get any less embarrassing.”

“You weren’t the one getting plowed into the desk,” she bumped her hip against his. “Okay, we’re here, what you got for us?”

“Right,” Steve hit the play button on his tablet, letting the news coverage play. “It’s from the UN conference in Vienna.”

The picture jumps to life, showing the ruin of the UN Building. “A bomb hidden in a news van,” the anchor is saying, but the room isn’t watching her, they’re looking at the grainy footage that shows a man in black and red sneaking away from the scene.

“Who’s coordinating?” Darcy pulls the tablet out of Steve’s hands and swipes away the conversation with Tony, pulling up the Avenger’s schedules. “Nat’s on the ground, right? She went to this clusterfuck?”

“Yeah,” Clint looks over her shoulder as she pulls up Nat’s contact info and opens a chat, waiting for the Widow to respond. “She wanted to see what she could do about this mess.”

The footage continued to play on the screen. “…Ripped though the UN building in Vienna.” The anchor is standing in front of the burned out wreckage of the building, talking loudly over the madness happening around her. “More than seventy people have been injured. At least twelve are dead, including Wakanda’s King T’Chaka.”

“Well shit,” Bucky slid over the back of the couch, landing on the cushions, hunching himself over his knees, his eyes never still as he analyzed the scene in front of him. “We gonna mobilize, Cap?”

“Officials have released a video of a suspect that they have identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier.” The video cuts to the grainy footage blown up to show someone who looks way too much like Bucky for the Hawks liking. “The infamous HYDRA agent, linked to numerous acts of terrorism and political assassinations.”

“What the fuck?” Darcy slammed the tablet into Steve’s chest, ignoring the cracking sound of the screen as it hit his chest.

“They’ve got video and pictures of Bucky leaving the scene,” Steve dropped the broken tablet onto the end table by the couch. At least this time it wasn’t his fault.

“So do we,” Clint sat down on the couch next to Bucky, tucking himself up against his mate’s side. “Friday, can you pull up video footage of Sergeant Barnes that coordinates locally with the timestamp on the news footage?”

“Certainly, Agent Barton,” the AI answered, running the new video next to the grainy new coverage. Bucky was standing in the common room kitchen, dumping coffee grounds in the coffee maker. As they watch Darcy came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle, placing a kiss against the center of his back. Clint followed moments later, pulling out a stool at the counter and slumped down, his sweatpants barely clinging to his hips and he face planted on the counter. “I have run the footage from the newscast through my database,” the lilting brogue of Tony’s AI continued. “And the proportions for Sergeant Barnes in the new coverage are incorrect. I am confident in the assessment that the man in the news video cannot be Sergeant Barnes.”

“Disregarding the fact that we have clear evidence that he can’t be in Vienna,” Clint waved at the screen. “Cause, you know, he’s right here in New York.”

Bucky sat quietly letting Darcy fold herself around him, their Hawk holding tightly to his right hand, connecting them all. “If we go public with this, the world will know where I am. The Accords are too fragile to mess with.”

“Maybe,” Darcy nuzzled into his neck. “But if we go public, we can also show them that you couldn’t possibly have done this.”

“With the Accords…”

“They’ve already issued a warrant,” Steve had Friday pull up the World Security Council’s call for Bucky Barnes. “There will be a worldwide manhunt.”

“If you please,” Friday interrupted, text appearing along with the rest of the coverage displayed, transcribing emergency calls of supposed sightings of the Winter Soldier running down the length of the screen, continuously scrolling as new calls came in. “I have taken the liberty of intercepting emergency calls.”

“Looks like we’ve got a new fight,” the Hawk sighed and let his weight press into Bucky’s side.

“Only if you want one,” Steve shook his head, leaning against the back of the couch, the word on the screen running too fast for even him to read. “We can hide out, see how this plays.”

“We can’t hide forever, Steve,” Darcy tipped her head back, wrapping a hand around her friends arm, grounding him to them. “Not with the Accords hanging over our heads. We gotta do something.”

“She’s right, Stevie,” Bucky kissed against the side of his girl’s head, humming at the warmth that traveled through their bond. “It’s time the full complement of the Avengers comes out to the public to fight these new laws,” he took a long deep breath, pulling Clint close with their clasped hands. “Including all three Hawks. I’m not the Winter Soldier anymore, I’m the Winter Hawk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Be Continued...

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know your thoughts.


End file.
